The Lost Rescue: Parallel Diaries of the Advance Party from the Lost Wagon Train of 1853

In 1853, a wagon train camped in the Eastern Oregon desert 130 miles from the Oregon Trail. Uncertain of their whereabouts and in desperate need of supplies, they sent a scouting party over the mountains for help. This is the true story of Elijah Elliott’s “Advance Party.” Becoming lost in the Three Sisters Wilderness, they tell their own story of starvation and loyalty through two parallel diaries. The Lost Rescue contains a complete history of the Meek Cutoff. In 1845, 1,050 men, women and children followed Stephen Meek into the wilderness because of threats made by the Walla Walla and Cayuse Indians. Seeking a short-cut across the Eastern Oregon desert, they faced a mysterious illness as they forged a new path through the desert. In 1853, Elijah Elliott attempted to lead a large group on the same cutoff. After a costly wrong turn, he found himself at the end of a rope while an angry mob weighed his fate. As they journeyed west, the starving train made their own way across the desert, facing hunger and intense thirst. In an act of desperation, the emigrants set their animals free and followed them to the distant waters of the Deschutes River.