From Salmon Falls the route lay across an expanse of sage plains to Fort Boise. A party, consisting of Whitman and his nephew, Lovejoy, Ricord, and Nimrod Ford, pushed forward, leaving written notices by the way of the course to be taken by the wagons, which came after the rate of thirteen .miles a day, notwithstanding the toughness of the artemisia and the depth of the sand. At Fort Boise they were kindly received by Payette, but could not tarry, as it was already the 20th of September. Fording the Snake River, where it has since been found necessary to have a ferry, by raising the wagon-beds a few inches on blocks, they reached the west side in safety. Following down the river, encountering no serious obstructions for three days, they reached on the 24th Burnt River Cañon, twenty-five miles in length, through which ran a small stream whose bed was used for a road for the greater part of the way, there being no time to clear away from the banks the masses of fallen and burnt trees from which the river was named.[1]
The first grading required on any part of the route from the main Platte to the Columbia was at the crossing of the ridge at the head of Burnt Biver; and this, too, was the first occasion on which it had been necessary to double teams.[2] From this point the toils of travel increased, the country being rough and hilly. Nevertheless by the 1st of October the main body of the immigration had arrived at Grand Rond Valley, which appeared so beautiful, set in its environing pine-clad hills, with its rich pasturage and abundant watercourses, that not a few of the immigrants were deterred from settling there only by the impossibility of obtaining supplies for the colony during the coming winter. On the morning of the 2d two inches of snow whitened the mountain sides, and warned the travellers not to waste precious time. On
