Riding the Wagons of History

The wagon train stopped for a break west of South Pass in central Wyoming. Teamsters stood by their horses and mules, while women and children milled around. Suddenly one team bolted, circling out across the sagebrush prairie, then racing back toward the wagon train. The driver couldn’t get his hands on the lines to control the team as it pulled the bouncing wagon toward the people.

Ben Kern spurred his horse, Scooter, toward the team, leaning over to grab the lines and stop the racing animals before they could pull the wagon through the crowd.

Kern’s timely rescue saved the day on that Mormon Trail Wagon Train in 1997. The wagon train, one of many Kern has organized, was headed from Omaha, Neb., to Salt Lake City, Utah—roughly 1,000 miles—to commemorate the trail’s 150th anniversary.

Chuck Quillin of New Sharon, Iowa, and his wife, Mary, have been on several Kern wagon trains and joined him last June and July for a 600-mile journey on the Bozeman Trail from Fort Laramie, Wyo., to Virginia City, Mont.

“He’s always made them trails, instead of simply driving down the road. He always made the trip very interesting, challenging,” Quillin says of his trips with Kern.

Kern’s past trips include The California and Pony Express Trail, about 2,000 miles from St. Joseph, Mo., to Coloma, Calif.; and The Oregon Trail, 2,000 miles from Independence, Mo., to Independence, Ore.

The 73-year-old probably has traveled more pioneer trail miles by wagon train than any other person—ever. He started wagon training in the 1950s in Oregon.

Kern lives in Evansville, Wyo., (pop. 2,255) just a few blocks from the site of the Reshaw Bridge—used by settlers to cross the North Platte River in the mid-1800s. He’s spent a lifetime ranching, working as a heavy equipment operator, and driving wagons and teams.

Now retired, he spends part of every year either on a wagon train or planning one. He started because he liked to work with horse and mule teams but has developed an interest in the history of western migration.

Kern picked the Bozeman Trail this year because “there’s so much history there, so many happenings that took place,” along the route in the 1860s, he says. The trail cuts through Wyoming and Montana land that was American Indian country when the orginal wagon trains made their way along the route.

“One of the things that I always had in my mind in planning this trip was getting associated with the Crow Indians, and that has really been interesting—and I’m very happy with their thoughts in having a wagon train and their enthusiasm in seeing this all happen,” Kern says.

All that remains of the old trails now are the stories and the landscape, says Jude Carino, an archaeologist and now the Bureau of Land Management manager of the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center being built in Casper, Wyo.

“Ben literally makes history come alive,” Carino says. “All too often … we forget our past. Some of the past we forget is that which is in our own back yards.” Anyone can join Kern’s trips as a passenger for a minimal transportation and food fee. People with their own horses and wagons can also sign on for the treks.

Carino says the wagon trains Kern organizes bring history to life and put people “back in touch with your own community’s roots, which is really important for these small communities along the trail.”

“In my own mind, he’s like a living icon. But what’s nice about him as a person doing this, it’s not the Ben Kern Show, it’s about the story. He does it for the history…for the celebration of the past,” Carino added.

It’s a past worth celebrating.

Candy Moulton is a freelance writer from Encampment, Wyo., who has traveled with Kern.

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