The Voice photos by Renee Wells
Nick Buck, with his niece, Paper Buck and her friend Sarah Stockholm, leave Paul, bound for Kimama, then Dietrich, on their trip from St. Joseph, Missouri to Pendleton, Oregon.
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By RENEE WELLS
The Voice
PAUL – Rinker Buck is a writer.
He is also a dreamer and that is why he and his brother are traveling, by covered wagon, from St. Joseph, Missouri to Pendleton, Oregon.
Nick Buck applies axel grease to the wheel of the wagon that is carrying him and his brother across the country along the Oregon Trail.
Buck learned that with all the commemorative wagon trains that have traversed the Oregon Trial in the past two to three decades, there has been no history written about the history of that great passageway from east to west.
So, he decided that would be his next writing project, and how better to get a real feel for the challenge he undertook than to experience the event himself.
Being a writer and not a driver, Buck knew he needed an experienced hand – so who better than his younger brother, Nick Buck, who owns and drives horses in New Castle, Maine, on a daily basis.
“He just called me up one day and said, ‘Hey, Nick, Simon and Schuster wants my book on the Oregon Trail, so I need to experience it. Want to come with me?’ And I just said (without a second thought),
“Heck, yeah.’ ”
So, the two New Englanders (Rinker is from Norfolk, Connecticut) set out in a small white pickup for St. Joe, the eastern end of the Oregon Trail. There, they bought a team of mules and a wagon and commissary (back wagon for carry horse and people provisions). And they set out.
Rinker Buck holds their mule team while his brother, Nick, hooks up the rigging.
They didn’t buy provisions, other than some grease for the wagon hubs, some salve for their mules, a little hay and some peanuts. Today, unlike in historical times, there are plenty of small towns along the way with stores and an untold number of good people to help out along the trail.
“We planned to leave out on Memorial Day, but we ended up moving the date up to May 14, in hopes of being able to reach Pendleton, Oregon, in time for their Pendleton Roundup Parade” on Sept. 14.
Nick Buck said they met their mules on May 10, picked up their wagon on May 11, and were camping on the trail by May 14th. Since that time, they have come 1400 miles, worn out four pairs of shoes on their animals and actually traversed more than 400 miles of actual Oregon Trail ruts, most of it in Wyoming.
“This wasn’t even on my bucket list,” Nick Buck said.
“But I have horses at home; I drive them every day, even just down to the grocery store, so when Rinker called me, I knew he wanted me to do this with him and I wanted to do it.”
Where does the adventuresome spirit come from? It’s inherited and it isn’t the first crazy thing Rinker Buck has ever done.
As a 15-year-old, he crossed the United State in a Piper Comanche airplane he and his 17-year-old brother, Kern, bought, rebuilt and jumped into one day, without radio or communications of any kind, and another Westward Ho took place. The story of the amazing feat of these two youngsters, who were the youngest to fly across America up to that time, is recorded in Rinker Buck’s book, Flight of Passage.
So, for Rinker, the decision to undertake this trip was nothing new. He just changed to a different brother and a different mode of travel.
“If someone said to me, ‘Let’s fly to the North Pole, I’d do it,” Nick Buck said, explaining his part in the plan as he waited at the home of Joe and Glenda Adams, in Paul, for his brother, Rinker, to return from Twin Falls. He had gone to pick up a few provisions and Sarah Stockholm, a friend of his daughter, Paper Buck. Both girls were joining them in Paul to continue on the trail the next day and would remain with them for a couple weeks.
As he waited, he removed each wheel from both wagons and greased them. Then he checked his mules. A little concern showed over some chafing on one of the Molly’s lips, but it was gone by morning, they reported as they pulled out of Paul, last Friday morning, bound for Kimama, then Dietrich, Shoshone, Gooding and Bliss over the next three days.
Rinker poured over maps Thursday night, looking for a quick route, but lamenting the fact that the fastest route would take him off the original trail until he reached Glenns Ferry. Unfortunately, they missed, by only one week, the Three Island Crossing Commemorative that is held each year. It was Aug. 12-14, 2011.
They will, however, camp at that site before setting off across a stretch of the Old Oregon Trail that will take them south of Mountain Home and across toward Grandview and in about a week’s time, out of Idaho.
Asked why he decided to take this approach to writing his book, Rinker said, “Crossing the Oregon Trail really doesn’t give you the opportunity to step back in time unless you experience it on a two-track (wagon).
“There have been days when we’ve been just over the hill from civilization, moving at a comparable time scale to those who came (more than a century ago.)”
They have even experienced the hardships that came to the settlers. On Rocky Ridge in Wyoming, near South Pass, they broke a wheel on their commissary wagon. It had to be left behind and they set out with a borrowed commissary that they will send back to Montpelier when theirs is repaired and brought to them.(Another benefit the settlers did not have)
“You know, for taking on three mules that we didn’t know and just starting out blind, things have been amazing,” Rinker Buck said.
“The mules had a few issues the first few days until they figured out who was the boss, and they’ve been a great team since.”
He told about them waiting at a train crossing in Rupert for several minutes while the “train did the watusi,” attesting to their gentle nature and great dispositions.
Early Friday morning, the pair was up and ready to get on the trail. So were the mules; Buck, the large John, was pawing impatiently.
“He’s our workhorse and he is ready to go,” Rinker said, as Olive Oil, a small Jack Russell Terrier perched herself on the wagon seat, lest she get left behind.
Rinker had related stories of several events they had experienced along the way – the farmer or two who were reticent to allow them passage across land, and the dozens of people who were more than accommodating along the way.
“We haven’t had to buy hay, other than the certified hay we needed, along this whole trip,” Rinker said.
“We even had one fellow stop us to see if we needed hay and he trucked it to us.”
All this because of a personal interest in the history of the Trail and to share something the easterners know little about. He wants it all.
“You know, the people in the east really don’t know about the Mormons and the Christians, the Indians and how they helped in many cases and the fact that the pioneers were victims of the outfitters,” Rinker said.
“So this will be our trip, our story, mixed with the history of the trail as I learn about it along the way.”
And then, with a little nip of fall in the air, last Friday morning, Rinker, Nick and Paper Buck, and SarahStockholm, were Oregon Bound.
(That is likely going to be the title of his book.)
4 Comments on "Oregon Bound and Wagon Ho!"
How’s the progress coming?
Are you going to make to the Pendleton Round-Up, September 14 – 17??
Let ‘er Buck!
Where are they now and when will they be here in Pendleton?
They passed through Murphy, Idaho August 19…
http://theequestrianvagabond.blogspot.com/2011/08/rinker-buck-teaser.html
Well…they didn’t exactly “jump in” a plane one day. They had well made plans which they followed on their journey. Flying a Piper Cub across the US was amazing for Kern and Rinker and it is a great story.
No…NOT a Piper Comanche which is a four place, low wing metal aircraft. No fabric wings, hand propping, wire for a fuel gauge aircraft like the wonderful Cub!