In 1843, Lindsay and Charles traveled with their younger brother Jesse to the
Oregon Country, after they all sold their farms in Missouri, bought several hundred head of cattle and set out at the behest of Jesse's good friend, Robert Shortess. At that time, the
Oregon Trail was still in its infancy, and the final hundred or so miles beyond the
Wascopam Mission had to be traveled by boat through dangerous winds, rapids, and eddies on the
Columbia River: Lindsay's nine-year-old son Warren perished, as did Jesse's ten-year-old son Edward, which most settlers expected would soon become the U.S.–British Columbia border.
Applegate Trail Jesse obtained information from the HBC about the
California Trail which led from Idaho to northern California along the
Humboldt River. This, combined with knowledge of the trapper's trail between the Willamette Valley and California, led fifteen men on horseback to set out in mid-June 1846 to look for a link between the two trails, with the expedition blessed by the
Provisional Government of Oregon. They traveled due south through the Willamette, Umpqua, and Rogue valleys. At the south end of the Rogue Valley—the site of present-day Ashland—they turned east and crossed the
Cascade Range, approximately following the present-day route of Green Springs Highway,
Oregon Route 66, and emerged near where
Keno, Oregon now lies. They went around the south end of
Klamath Lake and eventually to the future site of
Winnemucca, Nevada. The party then split, leaving some to rest, while the remainder followed the
Humboldt River northeast and along the California Trail to Fort Hall. The first emigrants to use the Applegate Trail did so in the fall of 1846 by following the Applegate party on the return trip, a group of perhaps 150 families which were persuaded by Jesse. Upon their return, the combined party began to blaze a trail for wagons, though they were ill-prepared for such an effort, having few tools, and consisting of mostly weary emigrants. They also faced an early winter—one which set snowfall records and stranded the
Donner Party in the Sierra Nevada, a few hundred miles to the south. By the time they arrived in the Rogue Valley, winter had set in. Rain, snow, mud, swollen creeks and rivers hampered passage. Low supplies, scarce game, dense brush and trees, and difficulty lighting warming fires slowed progress considerably, separating the emigrants over many miles. They were spared by relief parties from the Willamette Valley when news of their trouble traveled along the trail. The Applegates were blamed for the hardships the first wagon train faced by
Jesse Quinn Thornton, who waged a war of words which nearly led to a duel between him and an Applegate supporter,
James Nesmith. Remnants of the hostility survive today among some descendants of those survivors. Though the Applegate Trail minimized natural dangers, aggressive Indian warriors took the lives of at least 300 emigrants by 1862, even though the trail fell into general disuse by 1847. Lindsay Applegate and his party were the first white men in what is now the
Lava Beds National Monument. While traveling eastward they were stopped by rough lava around the south end of
Tule Lake. The feature known as Stone Bridge at the north end was the route of hundreds of emigrants. ==Later life==