The following is a portion of the account of the Campbell family migration to and experiences in California, selected from David Campbell's articles in The Weekley Review (Porterville, CA) of July 14, 21, and 18, 1899 - (It is taken from the 1934 book by Ina H. Steiner entitled "Porterville Genealogies" Pages 304-310): A Pioneer of 1846 "There were 250 wagons in rendezvous at Independence, Missouri, ready to start for California on April 1, 1846. In order to guard against Indian raids we organized into companies of 25 to 50 wagons, each company electing its own captain. We then elected Col. William Russell of Kentucky as commander. We left Independence April 2. Each captain had to furnish four men from his company to stand guard at night ... We concluded it would be best for each company to be independent and keep as near together as possible. Each wagon had from two to three yoke of oxen. In a short time the most of the companies divided up - some of the men wanted to rush through.... The party which hurried soon found that their cattle could not stand it, for by the time they had reached the Platte their cattle were tenderfooted and gave out. The company I was in made it a rule that if they could find a suitable place to camp they would always lay over one day in every week in order to rest up and do their washing. We aimed to travel 12 miles each day stopping when a good camping place was found. There were a great many buffaloes on the Plains at that time. We would hardly ever be out of sight of a band of from 100 to 1000 of the magnificent animals...There were four of us who had nothing else to do but hunt, viz. Green Patterson, John Foster, David Wray and myself . . .The way we managed to get them was to station three men out to one side and not let the buffalo see them - this was easy to do as the country was rolling- and then one would go around and start them in the direction of the men laying in wait; and as they passed the men would select a fine one and shoot him. If the animal was only wounded he would turn and make for the smoke of the gun; all we had to do was to jump to one side and put in another shot . . .-There would be from 5 to 10 killed each day ... and antelope . . . The buffalo is very clumsy and runs like a cow... When one starts to run you can't turn him but have to get out of the way. We had to be on our guard to keep them from stampeding our stock. "By the time the companies that were trying to rush through had reached Ft. Laramie their stock gave out; but they found traders there; so they traded their oxen off for others; and before we got to Ft. Hall they were in the rear. We were out of the buffalo range when we struck the Rocky Mts.; but we found plenty of mountain sheep, or goats as some people called them ... They too went in bands ranging from 1000 to 3000 and inhabited the roughest places in the mountains, going with ease over places where a man could not walk. They had very large horns which seemed to be quite useful to them at times, and especially so when they jumped down from one cliff to another for they would always light on their heads. There were a great many wolves in the Rocky Mts ... They were very large and white and would come around our camp at night and bark. We had a great many large streams to cross; but fortunately the rivers were all very low that year ... and were all forded without getting anything in the wagons wet, and without having to prop up the wagon beds. "We traveled up Sweet River for two days; the beaver dams were thick on the river and the mountains on each side were capped with snow. This brought us up to the Devil's Gate, where we laid over for one day to view the grand scenery. The river made a short turn here and came rushing down a narrow pass some 500 feet, with solid rock on both sides, the channel being about fifty feet wide. This brought us on the waters of the Pacific slope. Bear River was also a beautiful stream and was full of large mountain trout. When we reached the Steam Boat Spring, we laid over a day to fish and enjoy the grandeur which surrounded us. The water in this spring was boiling and threw up steam some twenty feet high and would cook a piece of meat in just a few minutes. It was close to the river bank; and the mountains came up close to the spring; the rocks for a mile around looked as if they had been thrown out of a burning pit. They looked like burned cinders. Some of the company thought that was surely the Devil's regions. -- Steve Williams [email protected] California Pioneer Project http://www.compuology.com/cpl/ Tulare County GenWeb Page http://www.compuology.com/cagenweb/tularcty.htm