Boots Made for Walking: Two Late Nineteenth Century Burials from Walters Ferry, Idaho

Description

Though there are many historical accounts of travel along the Oregon Trail toward the Pacific Northwest with a scattering of marked and clandestine graves along the way and reports from mining towns near trail destinations, very little bioarchaeological evidence of life along these trails and in western mining towns exist. Two skeletons were salvaged from Walters Ferry along the Snake River in southwest Idaho. This report re-examines osteological and archaeological remains from the site and uses bioarchaeological analysis combined with historic documentation. Results reveal that these remains were of two adult Euroamerican women interred between December 1888 and March 1889. Skeletal indicators of health reflects a harsh lifestyle resulting in workload-related bony growths and infection. These remains provide a unique glimpse at life, death, and the roles of women along the Boise-San Francisco Stage Route in late nineteenth century Idaho.