Tourist site: grave of Sacagawea's son

JORDAN VALLEY, Ore. - In this remote corner of southeastern Oregon, the overgrown grave of the son of Sacagawea awaits refurbishing and the onslaught of visitors during the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

It is the resting place of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, known as "Pomp," one of the most famous babies of the 19th century.

Born Feb. 11, 1805, he was carried on the expedition. His grave, discovered in the 1960s, is a mess.

With the bicentennial approaching in 2003, crews began clearing sagebrush from the site in late April, prepping for a June 24 dedication.

The grave site's restoration is being done under the umbrella of the Oregon chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation. New fencing, trees and roadwork on the dusty county road leading to the site are under way.

After the expedition's conclusion in 1806, Charbonneau went on to live a storybook life. Educated in Europe by a German aristocrat, he returned to the West as a mountain man and military scout, eventually working as a miner during the California Gold Rush before dying at 61 at a lonely stage stop near here in 1866.

Ranches dominate the area, a place settled by miners and cattlemen in the 1860s. The grave is three miles off U.S. 95 in the community of Danner, about 17 miles west of Jordan Valley.

The grave could draw thousands of visitors enthralled with the role of Sacagawea and her child on the trip. Already, even with an overgrown grave and poor signs on the highway, hundreds of people visit the site each summer.

"It will bring a lot of people in," said Mike Hanley, whose 1,000-head cattle ranch sits just out of town. "Tourism will help."

Jordan Valley, like many rural communities in the West, is reeling. Grazing restrictions are slowing the cattle industry, while last year the Kinross-Delamar Gold Corp. closed its mine, cutting more than 100 jobs. The Jordan Valley School District has lost approximately 50 of its 142 students since the mine closed.

Meanwhile, lower air fares, Native American gambling casinos and the lure of Las Vegas have stolen highway traffic that used to thread through this town on the way to Winnemucca and Reno, Nev.

"This highway has died," said Gary Moran, owner of the Old Basque Inn in Jordan Valley. "Anything would help."

Charbonneau had no intention of staying when he arrived at the Inskip Station in May 1866. Chilled from crossing the icy waters of the Owyhee River, some 25 miles to the west, he came down with pneumonia and died.

He had spent several years in Europe, learning at least four languages fluently and becoming a favorite in royal courts.

At 24, he came home to the West. For the next 15 years, he traveled the Rocky Mountains as a mountain man, meeting with legends like Jim Bridger, John C. Fremont and Jim Beckwourth. He scouted for the Mormon Battalion during the Mexican-American War in the 1840s and settled in California. He spent about 20 years in the gold country there.

When Charbonneau's obituary was discovered in an old newspaper from an Idaho mining town, historians were sure he had died at Inskip Station.

Today, Charbonneau's grave and five others sit beside a gravel road, separated from a cattle and horse range by a wobbly fence. The remains of the station sit across the road from the ranch, on private property.

A theory arose in the 1930s that Sacagawea died April 9, 1884, and was buried at Fort Washakie in Wyoming. Charbonneau is purported to be buried in the same cemetery. But most historians believe his mother died Dec. 20, 1812, in present-day South Dakota, and Charbonneau at Inskip Station in 1866.

Bruce and Joni Boyle raise horses and cattle on the 6,000-acre Ruby Ranch near the grave site. And while pleased with the legacy, they view the grave warily.

"We could see the good and bad of that," Bruce Boyle said.

Many ranchers in this part of Oregon feel under siege. Having more "outsiders" driving down rural roads seems like trouble to some.

Still, the Boyles are donating about one acre that Charbonneau's grave occupies and are building a better fence around the Inskip Station site to allow tourists to see the remains of the stone station, without damaging it.

"We love the history of this country," Bruce Boyle said. "There is nothing you can do but support it."