Kathleen Stollie
Special to the Kansan
A
although cracked and weathered and overlooked by many, a humble marker just north of Lindley Hall tells the tale of the Oregon Trail and its significance to the KU campus. Although much has surely changed, it's not tough to envisage the Trail which travelers encountered 150 springs ago.
The Oregon Trail, the main cross-
country throughfare to the Northwest from 1843 to the 1860s, stretched 2,000 miles from Independence, Mo., to Oregon City, Ore., including a 172-mile passage through Kansas and a climb atop Lawrence's Mount Oread.
Coming into view at the crest of Sunflower Road just west of Watson Library is Blue Mound, a treeless, indigo mound emerging from the Wakarusa valley southeast of campus. The topographical anomaly, now known as Mount Bleu, was one of the most-noted landmarks in the journals of Trail travel. Today the mount is covered in foliage but still is clearly visible from the Hill.
"Blue Mound was a notable landmark," says Barbara Burgess, an assistant professor of journalism at Washburn University who received her doctorate in American Studies from KU. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the journals of women trail travelers. "Some people would climb it, if the weather was nice and if they had time when passing through."
vived the exodus from the Midwest to the Pacific Coast.
there was danger, of course, and there was illness," she said, "but there was illness in the cities, too."
The Wakaunisa River, which runs just south of Lawrence until it buits up with the Kaw River further east of town, was the first major waterway the travelers encountered in Kansas, Burgess said. But, despite such hardships, including the tedious task of negotiating wagups up and down steep river banks, most sur-
cities, so who left behind wagon ruts, as they headed down what is now Jayhawk Boulevard included fur traders, California-bound gold miners, missionaries, explorers and families. Because of the federal government's urging, families sought land to homestead.
Though nobody knows precisely where the Trail itself crossed campus — and it's unlikely there was any precision to its path — Steve Jansen, director of the Elizabeth M. Watkins Community Museum, 1047 Massachusetts St., said one account placed the Trail's ascent just behind Fraser Hall, southeast of where the Chancellor's Residence presently is, near 17th Street. Another branch of the route, he said, is believed to have crossed at the north end of campus, near where Gertrude Sellards Pearson-Cornin Hall stands today, along 11th Street.
Approximately 100,000 travelers passed through the Oregon Trail's Kansas corridor, then known as the Independence Road. In an excerpt for a book she is compiling, Burgess had said that the caravans of covered wagons would depart from Independence sometime in early May, after the emigrants felt confident that the prairie grasses had grown tall enough to support the livestock traveling with them. For early Trail travelers, few resources, other than those provided by the land itself, existed around Lawrence, which was not founded until 1854.
From Lawrence, the Trail jutted on westward, passing through what is now Topeka, St. Mary's, Westmoreland, Blue Rapids and Hanover before crossing into Nebraska territory. Today the Trail can be traced through six states including Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon.
The marker on the north side of Lindley Hall reminds people of the pioneers who traveled the Oregon Trail from Independence, Mo., to Oregan City, Ore.
'Unforgiven' leads field with four Oscars
And the Oscar goes to
The 65th annual Oscar presentations were made last night. The major award winners included;
Best picture
Unforgiven
Best director
Other nominees
"The Crying Game"
"Howards End"
"Scent of a Woman
Clint Eastwoo
Clint Eastwood
"Untorgiven"
Other nominees:
Martin Brest
James Ivory
Neil Jordan
Robert Altman
Best actress
Other nominees:
Catherine Deneuve
Mary Jane Pfeiffer
Susan Sarandon
Best actor
"Howards End"
Thompson
Al Pacino
Source: CNN
Other nominees:
Robert Downey J.
Clint Eastwood
Stephen Rea
Denzel Washington
"Scent of a Woman"
Host supporting actress:
"My Cousin Vinny"
Marisa Tomel
Best supporting actor
Other nominees:
Judy Davis
Washington
Vanessa Redgrave
Miranda Richardson
Gene Hackman
"Unforgiven"
Author nominee
Jave Davidson
Jack Nicholson
Al Pacino
David Paymer
The Associated Press
"Pacino's throat was dry, and mine was really dry," said Eastwood in accepting his directing prize to a standing ovation. He had never even been nominated before.
"Unforgiven" led a diverse field of winners with four Oscars. It brought a supporting actor award to Gene Hackman for his portrayal of a sadistic sheriff. It also received the award for film editing.
Sean M. Tevis / KANSAN
LOS ANGELES — Clint Eastwood's brooding Western "Unforgiven" won the Oscar as best picture and brought him the directing prize last night. Al Pacino, another veteran who had never won before, took the acting award as the embittered blind veteran in "Scent of a Woman."
Emma Thompson, the free-thinking intellectual who marries into money in "Howards End," was named actress, while Marisa Tomei, Joe Pesci's feynest girlfriend in "My Cousin Vinny," was a surprise winner as actress.
"Indulge me for a minute, because I'm not used to this," he said in the midst of a rambling speech.
You broke my streak," said Pacino, who had been nominated six times in past years without winning.
Pacino, one of the industry's most respected actors, strode to the stage to a standing ovation.
howards End," a stately family saga that was nominated for nine awards, also won for art direction and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's screenplay adaptation of E.M. Forster's classic novel.
Another best picture nominee, "The Crying Game," won the best original screenplay award for Neil Jordan's sexually provocative story about love and terrorism.
Hackman, who received his second Oscar, thanked Eastwood during his acceptance
speech.
"（He) made it all possible for me and everyone else in the film. It was a wonderful experience," he said.
hackman won as best actor for the 1971 film "The French Connection."
In accepting her award, Tomi said, "This is such a great honor to receive this in a year when we recognize and celebrate and honor women."
The theme of the 65th Academy Awards, televised live by ABC to a worldwide audience estimated in advance at 1 billion, was "Oscar Salutes Women and the Movies."
Tomei, virtually unknown until "My Cousin Vinny," beat some of the world's most acclaimed actresses, including Judy Davis, who had been favored for win for her role in Woody Allen's "Husbands and Wives."
"Aldadin" Disney's smash animated film, brought the Oscar for best original score to Alan Menken, while he and Tim Rice won the best song award for "A Whole New World." Menken and his late partner, Howard Ashman, had won Oscars two of the previous three years for Disney's "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast."
"A River Runs Through It" picked up the Oscar for cinematography, while the award for best sound went to "The Last of the Mohicans."
"Bram Stoker's Dracula," directed by Francis Ford Coppola, picked up awards for costume design, makeup and sound effects editing. The prize for visual effects went to the black comedy "Death Becomes Her."
"Indochine," at $20 million the most expensive French film ever made, was honored as best foreign picture.
as best to showcase Billy Crystal, host of the show for the
Continued on Page 6.
People and places at the University of Kansas.
calendar
Lectures and Seminars
*Losing Weight Sensibly*
11 a.m., today, first floor
Conference Room, Wat-
tion Memorial Health Cent
kins Memorial Health Center
"Sexually Transmitted Diseases" Information Table.
1:30 p.m., same location
Environmental Colloquium: "The Rise and Fall of the Appropriate Technology Movement, 1955-85," by Carroll Pursell, Case Western Reserve University. 4-8 p.m., Friday, Hall Center Conference Room
"Rose Pesotto: Biography of a Labor Activist, 1896-1965," presented by Ann Schofield associate professor of American Studies and Women's Studies. 3:30-5 p.m., Thursday Hall Center for the Humanities Conference Room
Concerts
Doctoral Lecture-Recital:
Alexandra Mascolo-David,
piano: 5 p.m., today,
Swarthout Recital Hall.
Spring Concert: KU Symphonic Band; Robert E Foster, conductor; Peter Schickele, guest conductor. 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Crafton-Preyer Theatre, Free
Chamber Music Series; New World String Quartet with Phyllis Pancella, mezzo-soprano; World premiere of Lowell Liebermann's "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking, Opus 41,"
8 p.m., Friday, Crafton-Preyer Theatre
Tickets: Public $15 and $13, KU and K-12 students $7.50 and $6.50, senior citizens & other students $14 & $12
Master's Recital: Ron Montgomery, trumpet;
4:30 p.m., Saturday, Swarthout Recital Hall.
Free
Spring Concert; University Symphony Orchestra, Brian Priestman, conductor, Claude Frank piano soloist, 3:30 p.m., Sunday, Crafton
Preyer Theatre
Tickets: Public $6, senior citizens $5, students.$3
Student Recital: Chin-In Chu, composition, 8 p.m., Swanky, Sawhort Recital Hall, Free
Theater
English Alternative Theatre
"The Homecoming," by Harold Pinter
8 p.m., Thursday through Saturday and 2:30
p.m., Sunday, Swarthout Recital Hall, $5
General Admission