The Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar was a fifty-cent piece struck intermittently by the United States Bureau of the Mint between 1926 and 1939. The coin was designed by Laura Gardin Fraser and James Earle Fraser, and commemorates those who traveled the Oregon Trail and settled the Pacific Coast of the United States in the mid-19th century. Struck over a lengthy period in small numbers per year, the many varieties produced came to be considered a ripoff by coin collectors, and led to the end, for the time, of the commemorative coin series.
Ohio-born Ezra Meeker had traveled the Trail with his family in 1852 and spent the final two decades of his long life before his death in 1928 publicizing the Oregon Trail, that it should not be forgotten. In 1926, at age 95, he appeared before a Senate committee, requesting that the government issue a commemorative coin that could be sold to raise money for markers to show where the Trail had been. The coin had originally been thought of by Idahoans, led by Dr. Minnie Howard, seeking to further preservation work at Fort Hall; Meeker broadened the idea. Congress authorized six million half dollars, and placed no restriction on when or at what mint the coins would be struck. Meeker's Oregon Trail Memorial Association (OTMA) had tens of thousands of pieces struck in 1926 and 1928, and did not sell them all. Nevertheless, most years between 1933 and 1939, it had small quantities of the half dollar coined, in some years from all three operating mints to produce mintmarked varieties, and raised prices considerably.
Collectors complained that some of the issues were controlled by coin dealers, and individual collectors had to pay high prices. Public protests followed, and in 1939 Congress ended the series. Despite the complaints, the OTMA had difficulty in selling the coins, and they remained available from the OTMA's successor organization as late as 1953. Just over 260,000 of the 6,000,000 authorized coins were struck, of which about 60,000 were melted. The US commemorative coin struck over the longest period, the Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar has been widely praised for its design.
Background
In the middle years of the 19th century, before the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 made travel easier, hundreds of thousands of people journeyed along the Oregon Trail to settle the Far West of the United States. Not all who began the journey reached their destination as there was much suffering and death along the way—by one estimate, 20,000 people lie in unmarked graves.
Ohio-born farmer Ezra Meeker (1830–1928) traveled the Oregon Trail in 1852; he and his young wife and infant child went by ox-drawn wagon from Iowa to Oregon Territory. In his old age, he came to believe that the Oregon Trail, and the sacrifice of those who had died along it, were being forgotten. Amid considerable publicity as one of the last survivors of the pioneers who had blazed the way west, Meeker retraced his route along the Trail between 1906 and 1908. The Trail had in some places disappeared, swallowed up by town and farm, and in his journeys, he sought to find where he had passed, seeking to have historical markers erected. He took his ox team and wagon across the nation to publicize his cause, parking his rig in front of the White House where he met President Theodore Roosevelt. In New York, he crossed the Brooklyn Bridge. In 1910, he and his oxen participated in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. In the succeeding years, he traveled the route by oxcart, automobile, and, at age 93 in 1924, airplane, attempting to further his cause, and seeking federal recognition and funding for his efforts.
Inception The Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar stemmed from various efforts by Idahoans who favored the preservation of the site of Fort Hall, an important way station on the Trail. The idea was sparked by the issuance of the 1925 Stone Mountain Memorial half dollar, which caused Mabel Murphy, wife of an Idaho newspaperman, to propose to her husband the striking of an Oregon Trail coin, the profits from which could be used for historic preservation. Her husband, D.T. Murphy, on April 16, 1925, dutifully published an editorial, "Oregon Trail Covered Wagon Half Dollars" in the Idaho State Journal. Mrs. Murphy would not live to see the coin issued, dying November 30, 1925, of tuberculosis.
The idea for the coin was brought up again when civic activists in Pocatello, Idaho, led by Dr. Minnie Howard, sought ideas for funding a monument on the site of Fort Hall. Insurance salesman F.C. McGowan displayed a Stone Mountain piece, "Yes. Coinage. Like this!" Howard and her colleagues pursued the idea. Meeker did as well once he heard of it, forming the Oregon Trail Memorial Association, ("OTMA" or "the Association") a national organization, which could also receive the half dollars, and sell them at a profit.
By 1925, Congress was reluctant to authorize more commemorative coins; twelve pieces had been issued between 1920 and 1925, and many legislators felt that coins were being allowed that "commemorate[d] events of local and not national interest". The entire mintages of commemoratives were sold at face value to the sponsoring organizations designated in the authorizing acts. These groups then sold the coins to the public at a premium, thus raising money for causes that Congress had deemed worthy. Made cautious by a series of unsuccessful issues, Congress rejected a number of proposals for special coins in early 1926. Among these were pieces to honor the completion of the Lincoln and Victory Highways, and a proposal to commemorate the centennial of the birth of American composer Stephen Foster.
The bill authorizing the Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar was first introduced in the House of Representatives on January 25, 1926, by Washington Congressman John Franklin Miller, who had previously been mayor of Seattle. Meeker was living in Seattle while Miller was mayor, having moved from his previous home in Puyallup. According to local historian Bert Webber in his 1986 monograph on the coin, "there is little doubt that Mr. Miller was influenced to propose this coin by Ezra Meeker." A hearing was held before the House Coinage Committee on March 3; Meeker testified. The bill was reported favorably, and then passed by the full House on April 5, 1926. The bill was not opposed in the House of Representatives, though one member, Michigan Congressman Louis Cramton, asked several questions before it passed by unanimous consent. According to an October 2013 article in The Numismatist, "Congress was no match for Meeker".
On April 26, 1926, the 95-year-old Meeker appeared before the Senate's Committee on Banking and Currency. Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon had filed a letter opposing commemorative coin issues, except those of national importance. Meeker, in his testimony, argued that the Trail issue would be of such importance. The OTMA board considered whether to seek amendment of the bill to the alternative suggested by Mellon, a commemorative medal. In part because of Howard's urging, they decided to stay with the coin. The bill for the half dollar was reported without recommendation, but was passed by the Senate on May 10. Meeker met with President Calvin Coolidge to ensure it would be signed, which it was on May 17, 1926, as Public Law 325, authorizing the issuance of up to 6,000,000 half dollars. President Calvin Coolidge signed the bill on the White House lawn; Meeker was present at the signing ceremony and was photographed shaking hands with President Coolidge.
The bill required that the Association pay for the half dollars at par, and that the dies and other costs of preparation not be at the expense of the United States. The figure of six million was the largest in American commemorative history, exceeding the five million for the Stone Mountain issue. Congress placed no restriction on which mint should strike the coins, and did not put a time limit on the authorization. According to numismatists Anthony Swiatek and Walter Breen in their encyclopedia of US commemoratives, the bill passed "possibly because the stated purpose was nationalistic rather than obscurely local". Coin dealer and author Q. David Bowers states that "on the surface the motivation seemed to be good enough ... doubtless many American citizens had family ties to the famous migration".
Preparation
Meeker wanted the new half dollars struck as quickly as possible; he was planning another journey west on the Trail, and wanted to be able to sell the coins along the way. The Association initially contacted Chester Beach, credited with the design of the 1923 Monroe Doctrine Centennial half dollar, to sculpt the new coin, but he was unavailable, though he prepared sketches.
The OTMA tried to reach agreement with Gutzon Borglum, designer of the Stone Mountain piece, but he wanted too much money and time. Ulric Stonewall Jackson Dunbar, who had played a minor role in the Columbian half dollar of 1892–93, was willing, but lacked the national reputation the Association felt the coin's sculptor needed. After receiving suggestions from the American Numismatic Society, the Association turned to the husband-and-wife team of James Earle Fraser and Laura Gardin Fraser. James Fraser had designed the Buffalo nickel; Laura Gardin Fraser had created several commemorative coins, including the Grant Centennial dollar and half dollar. It chose the Frasers at the urging of Minnie Howard, who felt that James Fraser's work dealt with the West, and might make manifest, in his coin design, the importance of the migration by covered wagon. The Association determined upon a design concept of a map showing the Oregon Trail on one side, and on the other a man leading an ox-drawn wagon, with his wife and infant child riding. Although he is not formally commemorated by the coin, the man was meant to be Meeker, and the wagon was based on a photograph of the one he took east in 1906.
Design
James Fraser designed the wagon side while Laura Fraser designed the Indian side and converted both into relief models. Meeker pestered Laura Fraser to complete the modeling, as he wanted the half dollars available for sale at an upcoming event. She completed the work by July 30, 1926, when she wrote to enquire where she should send the designs for endorsement by the Commission of Fine Arts. This body since 1921 had been tasked with advising the Secretary of the Treasury on coinage design. She sent photographs of her models to the commission's offices. On August 5, 1926, commission chairman Charles Moore responded enthusiastically, informing her that not only had the commission endorsed the designs, but they were having the prints framed for their meeting room. To save time, the hubs from which coinage dies could be prepared were made by the Medallic Art Company of New York, which had made reductions from plaster models to hubs for several commemorative issues. The resulting hubs were sent to the Philadelphia Mint, where working dies for the issue were made. A compass rose on the Indian side, included in Laura Fraser's models, does not appear on the issued coin, though the reason for the change is not known.
The wagon side designed by James Fraser depicts a Conestoga wagon drawn by two oxen, heading into an extremely large setting sun, with resplendent rays. The designers' initials appear behind the wagon; five stars appear below the vehicle, though what they represent is uncertain. Swiatek and Breen suggested that they represent five states and territories through which pioneers would have passed.