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Oregon Trail pioneers created communities that are now under threat
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Location: Blogs Jim's Blog |
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| Posted by: Jim Hansen |
6/29/2006 |
The Oregon Trail Museum in Montpelier tells a powerful living history story of the pioneers who worked together to build communities throughout the west, including many in Idaho. We can learn a lot from those pioneers about what it takes to fight for one of the most important assets that ensure their community's survival - our public lands.
In 1852, pioneers on the Oregon Trail crossed through the beautiful Bear Lake Valley in what would soon become the Idaho Territory. When you go to Montpelier, you can relive that experience at the Oregon Trail Museum. I did that yesterday and was taken back in time with some living history tour guides. I even took a ride in a rather bumpy wagon as part of the experience. The communities that grew up along the Oregon Trail gradually grew into the towns that comprise much of southern Idaho. They knew that to survive, everyone helped out and the governments they created to ensure the common welfare of the citizens were testament to the American experience. The last thing they probably imagined was that the communities they created may, in the future, be sold out to the highest bidder with the encouragement of their Congress.
Communities like Montpelier are surrounded by public lands, rich in fish and wildlife that afforded critical hunting and fishing resources, as well as timber, minerals and grasslands. Much of that land eventually became managed by and for the public so that it could continue to support multiple uses for untold generations. Talk to people in communities like Montpelier, or Stanley, or Tetonia, or Challis and you hear a lot of concerns about the Congress's new view of public lands. We've been wrestling amongst ourselves about exactly what kind of uses should be allowed on different pieces of public land, but we all assumed they would always be public.
Congress is now considering abandoning the deeply American view that public lands are a public resource to be managed for the benefit of many generations to come. Instead, they are looking at those lands as a bank account to cash out to pay the huge debts it has racked up. Rather than partner with local governments in rural communities like Congress used to do, it is now imposing more burdens on them and ignoring their role as the government closest to the people.
I keep hearing from more and more people in rural Idaho that they don't want their community's assets to be sold off to the highest bidder. Yet, there is a sense of vulnerability that the cozy relationship between Congress and huge private interests will result in public lands being shifted into the hands of absentee private owners who put up iron gates, big mansions, and "No Trespassing" signs. What has long been a thriving community of people of modest means running small businesses, going to church, grazing their cows, heading to the hills to camp, hunt and fish... should not become a playground for the the most wealthy people in the world.
I encourage everyone to go see the Oregon Trail Museum in Montpelier. Be inspired by the grit, determination and community building that made this country great...then be inspired to join the fight to preserve the character of our rural communities. Consider it your own living-history work!
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