There were considerable difficulties for the 1845 train, and after reaching a hill known as Wagontire, the people left Meek and split into groups.

They turned north at the Deschutes River and finally returned to the traditional Oregon Trail near The Dalles.

[3] In the early 1850s, residents of the Upper Willamette Valley attempted to attract more emigrants to Central Oregon.

[7] Once they finished the road survey, they tried to follow the remaining route to Vale, Oregon, where the cutoff was to begin.

They continued northeast until they located the ruts of Meek's wagons and followed them not far from the Crooked River until they came to Steen's Ridge.

Although there was never any official statement, it is apparent the Viewers were also looking for the Lost Blue Bucket Mine, a place where some of Meek's emigrants had stumbled onto gold nuggets.

[9] From Steen's Ridge, the Viewers followed Meek's wagon ruts south into the Harney Basin.

Elliott had been a supportive donor for the new road, and was traveling as far as Fort Boise to meet his wife and children who were coming with the 1853 emigration.

Unfortunately the tendency was for the most needy to take the risk because their supplies were low and as autumn was approaching they did not want to get caught on the wrong side of the mountains.

Finally Meek's ruts led them into Harney Valley where Elliott chose a campsite along the Silvies River near present-day Burns, Oregon.

But as Elliott and his wagons drove into the Harney Basin, two of his scouts rode ahead near Wright's Point, a prominent plateau in the area.

With this confrontation in mind and the memory of the Road Viewer's skirmish occurring the prior year, and in the same general area, there was some reluctance to take the direct route west.

There are conflicting stories regarding what happened next, but it appears Elliott's wife made an appeal to the angry travelers and defused the crisis.

[22] When Elliott was preparing to lead the train around the lakes, he formed a rescue party to ride ahead for help and supplies.

The rescue was led by Charles Clark and Robert Tandy, men who had previously settled in the Willamette Valley.

The mare, by becoming stuck in the river bottom, managed to avert tension between the emigrants and the Northern Paiutes.

[24] The other men in the party were Pleasant Calvin Noland, Benjamin Franklin "Frank" Owen, Andrew McClure, Job Denning, Charles Long, and James McFarland.

When they reached the Deschutes they mistook the South Sister for Diamond Peak, setting up a difficult crossing of the mountains.

By the time they made their way down the McKenzie watershed to Springfield they were half-starved, their clothes torn, and skin lacerated from bushes and briers along the way.

During the last week of their journey Frank Owen was without shoes and his feet were badly cut by the briars along the McKenzie River.

[28] By the time the first men of the advance party arrived in Springfield, on October 18, 1853, the wagon train had already been discovered by the Settlers of the Willamette Valley.

Five young men followed Clark's group across the mountains and finally caught up with the leaders around the time they reached Springfield.

They were unable to cross the mountains, ate their three horses and followed the Deschutes River until they reached The Dalles on November 1, 1853.

As people were preparing to push south to the road, a few men tried to ride ahead to alert the settlers that they were coming.

On October 16, a man by the name of Martin Blanding pushed ahead of the others, although he was completely out of provisions and in a very weak condition.

There was some 20,000 pounds of flour, "with bacon, potatoes, onions, salt, and sugar, as well as 290 head of work and beef cattle which could be used to draw wagons or for food.

One exception was a tragic accident that occurred as the emigrants were attempting to cross the middle fork of the Willamette River.

[34][35] When the surviving emigrants finally arrived in Lane County, the population of the Upper Willamette Valley nearly doubled.