In 1860, W. G. Chamberlain photographed these unidentified travelers momentarily at rest by the upper Arkansas River in Colorado. We do not know their fates, but we can only hope that they fared better than the Sager family. In 1844, Henry and Naomi Sager and their children set out from Missouri to Oregon. Still far from Oregon, Henry Sager died of fever. Twenty-six days later, Naomi died, leaving seven children. The Sager children, under the care of other families in the wagon train, pressed on. After traveling two thousand miles, they arrived in Oregon, where Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, whose own daughter had drowned, adopted all seven of the Sager children. Denver Public Library, Western History Division # F3226.

CONNECTIONS: H006Fw did wagon trains change the western United States?