June 7 [1860]… Camped near an Indian village so we have plenty of company, begging & trying to sell moccasins. One squaw said she had dirt in her eyes and we gave her a wash dish and water and cloth. She washed herself and then her papoose and he cried loudly and it sounded more civilized than anything else we had heard. There was a very bashful young Indian who could not find courage enough to ask for anything so Mother filled a plate of victuals & he began to eat. When he had finished he strung his meat on a weed and got up. Another young one – a warrior – came up smiling enough and hands Edward his tomahawk, which served the purpose of pipe & so he points down into the bowl and said – smoke. He was quite intelligent and talkative, almost as soon as he came in an old Indian came in from the other fire, he shook hands – as they all do – and wanted to know if I was Mother’s papoose and Edward too, she told him yes, he pointed to the warrior and said HE was HIS papoose and talked quite loudly. The warrior took hold of the bashful ones tassel that hung around his neck on a breast plate of beads, and pointed to me and that plagued the bashful one considerably….
…Preparing to make bread to bake in the morning, as we can’t have a fire tonight. We are camped about as far from another Indian village as we were last night so we expect company. We bake finally in Mrs. Wimple’s stove. Go to bed after preparing for rain, when we know it wouldn’t even sprinkle. Edward tells me of passing a grave Tue. On the headboard read – H. Wilson, Wis., 1859.
June 8, Fri. I awoke by the cry – “The cattle are all gone”, and on listening find they have gone into the Bluffs. The boys go after them. I got up feeling not very well This is a very cold morning. Edward gets back with the cattle and I get mother up and finally Tom gets ready after a while and we have breakfast. Tom has begun to have some of the comforts of Job – went hunting over the bluffs yesterday and wore moccasins and today he is sore footed enough…. Mother is not very well today…. [she] has a foreboding something is going to happen. She asked us how we would feel if when we got there Father should be dead… Tonight we camp near the wigwams which are inhabited by Mexicans and squaws, too. We daily meet teams on the return, there has been a great many teams pass for a few days. We have seen but one dead ox till this week, since when there are quite a number…
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| Life on the plains. Published in Harpers October 1866. |
Mon. 11th… Stop for dinner and drive the cattle toward the river – they get to a slough and the cattle most of them, run in and begin to drink. It was the strongest kind of alkali and the men ran after them as hard as they could & had to take the horses to go after them, and they yoked them right up to feed them fat bacon and I guess that will keep them straight. This is the first difficulty we have had of the kind as we have been very careful. This afternoon the cattle go very well, but when we stop Rough lays right down and don’t chew his cud at all, they think the bacon made him sick….
13th. Get fairly early start. Rough is quite well, and if there is no alkali in the soft ground the cattle will do very well. Find some beautiful flowers. See 8 cattle and 2 horses that have died lately, before 1 o’clock. Went to a grave and it had on it G. H. Hopkins – died June 7th, 1860 from Deboque [sic], Iowa. We passed the cut off soon after. We find some sand hills but keep on up the platte as we have been advised to do. We have crossed two alkali sloughs and are now within 7 miles of Fremont Orchard. We camp tonight across an alkali slough where two of the company’s wagons and two others get stuck, they get out after a long time and by that time the wind begins to blow….
14th.… Yesterday we drove 18 miles and passed Fremont Orchard & Fremont hills too, I guess, judging by some steep ones we came down. Came down one big hill into one of the most picturesque place one can imagine – the river filled with islands on one side and on the other were steep bluffs.... Fremont Orchard is a beautiful grove of trees that appear to stand in rows, it looks more like home to see the trees close by. Come over a very large sand hill and Mrs. Wimple and I went down the side to the bank and found a beautiful road and shade but we had just got to the teams again when we came to an alkali stream which we went around by a path on the mountain to where we camped for dinner on the Platte and a tribe of Cheyennes came along with their dogs & ponies, some of them have this year’s colts saddled for the papooses to ride. Some of the prettiest ponies for only ten dollars, but they won’t take any thing but silver dollars and we have nothing but half dollars. It is a very large tribe, we see one squaw 80 years old, she laughs at my bloomers. We afterward see her lugging a great bundle of wood as large as two men ought to take. See Indians all day. Find more alkali and some sand but we go the newest roads and so keep on the flats. Camped again on the flats and find a well already dug for our benefit. Campers keep coming down until 8 or 9 o’clock. There is a cloud coming up ugly and black that looks like rain. We get meat on the stove to boil. We don’t more than get into bed than the wind comes up and takes everything kiting. Among the rest of the Company’s tent [?] and they give a loud call for the hammer. Finally all gets still again and I go to sleep after concluding I will not blow away or it will not rain. I awake in the night dreaming everything horrid.
Despite Helen and her mother’s dark premonitions, the family meets up with the elder Clark near Denver just over a week later.
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Clark, Helen E., “The Diary of Helen E. Clark,” In Two Diaries with Calvin Perry Clark (Denver, CO: Denver Public Library, 1962), pp. 30-36.
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