Plans being made to recognize the Oregon Trail pioneer Ezra Meeker in the next century

Jan. 17—LA GRANDE — The National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center near Baker City will soon receive a message from the future.

Its author will be La Grande historian Ronnie Allen.

Allen will prepare a letter that will be sent to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center discussing the time capsule in a stone marker the legendary pioneer Ezra Meeker installed in 1906 in La Grande. The time capsule in the historical marker, situated near the corner of Walnut Street and B Avenue, was filled with items after being opened last summer and then sealed again.

A silver 2022 Ezra Meeker necklace medallion is one of the items placed in the time capsule last summer. Allen is making arrangements, in part through his letter, to have the Meeker medallion given to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center after the time capsule is opened.

"I will ask that it be added to the Ezra Meeker display," Allen said.

The time capsule will likely be opened about a century from now. Allen, with help from the Oregon-California Trails Association, which he is a member of, is making plans to have the time capsule sealed until at least 2122.

"We do not want it to be opened for 100 years," said Allen, who is working closely on the project with his good friend Dale Counsell of La Grande.

The time capsule was opened last summer at a public event attended by about 150 people. However, it proved to be barren.

The marker's time capsule space was believed to have contents in 1906, according to a Meeker journal entry. Allen said it was probably empty because the marker reportedly had been moved several times in the Walnut Street neighborhood since it was first installed, due to building projects. He said during the transfers the contents of the time capsule may have fallen out.

It is unlikely the marker will ever be moved again because in August 2022 a concrete form for the base of the stone Oregon Trail marker was added.

"Nobody would ever break into it because they would now have more than 1,000 pounds of concrete to deal with," Allen said.

The concrete was poured as a public service by Steve Witty, of Cove, the owner of Witty's Concrete, who donated not only his time but also all the resources needed for the project.

The stone marker is among at least 35 Meeker set up along the Oregon Trail during the three journeys he made across the United States to promote efforts to preserve the overland route. It is one of three Meeker put up in Union County. The two others were installed at the lower and upper ends of Ladd Canyon.

The marker from lower Ladd Canyon is now at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, which is currently closed for renovation work. The upper Ladd Canyon marker has disappeared, but Allen said he has been searching for it for years and has not given up in his pursuit of it.

Allen recently had a sample rock from the Walnut Street marker sent to Washington State University's geology department to determine its content. Allen received a report nine months later, on Friday, Jan. 13, from WSU indicating that stone is made of basalt.

Allen said it is made from the same basalt the Meeker stone at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center is made of. He said two years ago he had a sample from it also analyzed by WSU.

"They were both made from the same rock," he said.

Allen worked with Jason McClaughry, a geologist with the Department of Geology and Mineral Industries in Baker City, to get the stone samples tested. McClaughry, after receiving the test results, determined the stone for both markers came from a field about 4 miles west of La Grande.

Dick Mason is a reporter with The Observer. Contact him at 541-624-6016 or dmason@lagrandeobserver.com.