It’s always nice to get a nod on national television, which is what happened a week ago on “Jeopardy!”
As we noted in Tuesday’s paper, the classic Q&A show (OK, the format is A&Q) broadcast the previous night included a visual clue. It was a map showing the territory between Fort Vancouver and Fort Hall, in southeast Idaho.
The contestants had to respond to this prompt: “This route went between those two Forts shown.”
The correct response: “What is the Oregon Trail?”
Unfortunately, the national shout-out conflicted with another televised event last Monday night that sucked up most of the eyeballs in the Pacific Northwest. ESPN aired the national championship football game between Oregon and Ohio State.
The Fort Vancouver segment was during halftime of the game. Interestingly, a question about the halftime score could have featured the same basic setup as that “Jeopardy!” question:
Did Oregon lead or did Oregon trail?
Millions of viewers saw Oregon trail 21-10 at the half, as Ohio State rolled to a 42-20 win over Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota and his Ducks.
That isn’t the only intersection of the Oregon Trail and the Heisman winner.
A bronze marker along Vancouver’s Main Street could be considered a distant cousin of the Heisman Trophy. It’s part of a 7-foot-tall marker that is a tribute to the Oregon Trail pioneers. It was placed at the north end of the Interstate Bridge in 1916, then removed in the 1950s, when the second span of what now is the Interstate 5 Bridge was built.
The local Daughters of the American Revolution group led an effort to put it on view at the Covington House, next to Kiggins Bowl. The “Spirit of the Trail” plaque shows a woman directing a wagon train toward the setting sun.
A weathered inscription shows where the plaque was cast: Roman Bronze Works, New York. According to online references, the foundry (which no longer is in business) cast the first Heisman Trophy.
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.
