On our way into Elko we visited the California Trail Interpretive Center. This is run by the Bureau of Land Management.
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| Entrance to California Trail Interpretive Center |
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| Betty at California Trail Interpretive Center |
The exhibits were very well done, and I learned a few things. I enjoyed reading about how the wagon trains worked. I learned about the advantages and disadvantages of using oxen vs. horses vs. mules to pull your wagon. They also compared the speed of these three with modern means of transportation.
One thing that surprised me was that the wagons used odometers. Some were automated as shown in the picture below. Others did it by hand by tying a handkerchief to the spoke of the wheel and counting the rotations. This was important as there were no road signs (or GPS). Directions were given by indicating how many miles it was to the next watering hole or other landmark. The settlers had to know how far they had travelled to know where they were.
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| wagon odometer |
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