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Apr 6, 2011 · In “Meek’s Cutoff”—based on a true story—three families are guided westbound by the crude, mythomaniac con man Stephen Meek, who seems to have led them astray. The men of the families ...
- Michelle Williams
The director Kelly Reichardt has made a candid, joyfully...
- John Ford
John Ford’s “Upstream” June 21, 2011. Richard Brody....
- Michelle Williams
- The Legend of Steven Meek
- Southeastern Oregon, An Inhospitable Place For Early Settlers
- Evil Hour: An Omen of What Was to Come
- Raging Fever and Tensions
- Splitting Up
- Finding Their Bearings
- The End of The Journey
- Meek's Cutoff: The Aftermath
Steven Meekwas a mountain man. A hard-as-nails figure in buckskins who traversed the rugged North American landscape long before white civilization set in. Born in 1807, he spent most of his legendary life as a fur trapper, rubbing elbows with the historical figures who shaped Oregon and the West. Steven's younger brother, Joe Meek, was somewhat le...
In the summer of 1845, nearly a thousand pioneers packed their lives into canvas-covered wagons and set their sights westward, drawn by the siren call of Manifest Destiny. The allure of verdant valleys and golden opportunities in western Oregon beckoned them onward. Steven Meek promised to shepherd them through the wilderness. His proposition was s...
At Farewell Bend on the Snake River bordering Oregon and Idaho, Meek's party broke away from the rest of the train. They were to trek along the Malheur River for a bit, then follow the river's north fork down into the Harney Basin. 20 years prior, Peter Skene Ogden, a Hudson's Bay Company trader, referred to this river in his journal as "Riviere au...
As desperation mounted, food supplies dwindled. The pioneers had stocked their wagons with provisions for a journey they expected to be weeks shorter. Starvation began to take its toll, joining exposure, dehydration, and illness as grim reapers within the wagon train. Meek was a proud man, certain of his capabilities as a guide. But as the party ca...
At this point, the immigrants were divided on what to do. Follow the man who'd guided them into disaster, or strike out alone, following their instincts to reach civilization. Related: A Trail Of Tears And Blood: Hiking Amanda’s Trail On The Oregon Coast As the wagon train arrived at the springs cradling the south fork of the Crooked River, they fo...
Native American tribes added another layer of danger. Stories of hostile encounters filled the pioneers with dread, and while actual violent confrontations were rare, the fear of such attacks added to the psychological toll of the journey. The physical hardships were compounded by the psychological strain. The sense of betrayal, the fear of the unk...
In a painstaking process to aid their hazardous river crossing, the settlers were forced to meticulously disassemble their wagons. Some transformed their wagon boxes into makeshift boats. With ropes as their guiding system, they navigated the swift river current, embarked from the lower banks. Others, however, opted for a mechanical solution, utili...
In the year 1853, a fresh band of pioneers broke away from the Oregon Trail at Vale. This subsequent wave of emigration was spearheaded by Elijah Elliott. With a few deviations, Elliott retraced the trail blazed by Meekin his tumultuous 1845 journey. However, a significant divergence occurred upon reaching the Deschutes River. Rather than following...
- Danielle Denham
May 11, 2011 · The peeps of the caged bird become a mocking reminder of the domesticity they've left behind. "Meek's Cutoff" is more an experience than a story. It has personality conflicts, but isn't about them. The suspicions and angers of the group are essentially irrelevant to their overwhelming reality.
Apr 14, 2011 · We join the story as three 19th-century pioneer families are struggling along the desolate Oregon trail; they have evidently been persuaded to break away from the main column on the promise of a ...
Jan 23, 2011 · The opening to director Kelly Reichardt’s film Meek’s Cutoff sets a grim scene—a group of pioneers arduously carries their belongings across a river, while a man carves a message into the bark of a dead tree: “LOST.” Meek’s Cutoff is based on the true story of the pioneer group led by Stephen Meeks, a guide who promised to lead them through a shortcut on the Oregon Trail in 1845. A ...
Apr 8, 2011 · Based loosely on a true story (and scripted by Reichardt's longtime collaborator Jon Raymond, who also co-wrote Todd Haynes' adaptation of Mildred Pierce), Meek's Cutoff follows a group of ...
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Apr 16, 2011 · “Meek’s Cutoff” takes its name from a variation on the route west blazed by a wagon train guide named Stephen Meek. In 1845, Meek led some 200 wagons and 1000 souls on his shortcut, which ...
