An Unheard of Journey for Females
By Sherril Steele-Carlin
When Lewis and Clark concluded their epic journey in 1806, their Corps of Discovery were the first white men to cross the vast expanse of land we know as the West. In their footsteps followed trappers, mountain men, and explorers. Their names like Zebulon Pike, Kit Carson, and John Fremont all conjure up pictures of rough and ready bearded adventurers. However, all those doing early exploring in the West were not men. In 1836, Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding crossed the Rockies, and were the first white women over the crest of the continent.
The Story
Whitman and Spalding traveled west with their husbands in 1836 as missionaries for the "heathen" Indians in Oregon Territory. On July 4, their party crossed the Continental Divide at what is now known as South Pass, Wyoming. Today, nothing more than a small stone marker commermorates their crossing. Spalding's diary entry for the day is equally inconseqential. "July 4th. Crossed a ridge of land today, called the divide, which separates the waters that flow into the Atlantic from those that flow into the Pacific, and camped for the night of the head waters of the Colorado."* Narcissa Whitman's diary and letters home to her family do not even mention the crossing. Neither woman seemed to recognize they were the first white women over the trail.
The Missionaries
Both women were more intent on reaching Oregon and setting up their missions with their husbands, it seems. They did go on to establish missions in Oregon and Washington. Whitman and her husband Marcus' mission in Walla Walla, Washington served as an important stop on the Oregon Trail in later years as more and more settlers traveled west. In 1847, a band of Cayuse Indians attacked the mission, killing the Whitmans and several others. The Indians were convinced an epidemic of measles was the white man's way of getting rid of them to make way for more emigrants.
Henry and Eliza Spalding established a mission in Idaho, about 110 miles east of the Whitmans in Walla Walla. For the first few years, their mission was more successful than the Whitman's. In 1837, Eliza gave birth to a daughter, the first white child born in Idaho. Henry brought a printing press to the mission in 1839 and began the printing in the Pacific Northwest. They ministered to the Nez Perce Indians -- Eliza taught school and became adept at their language. She died in 1851 in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.
The End
The first ladies of the Rick Mountains never again saw their families in the east. They quietly followed their husbands to an unforgiving land, paving the way for all who followed. It seems they never realized how important their first steps were in the eventual settlement of the west.
*Quote from the Book: "Where Wagons Could Go," Edited by Clifford Merrill Drury. University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
