Imagine, you are going on a walk that lasted five- to six-months or even take up to a year! You are saying goodbye to all your close friends and family as you are hoping you wont die on The Oregon Trail. You wish you could bring you whole doll collection along with you but instead you can only bring one and you may have to dispose or give away the rest. Imagine there are tons of ways to die of diseases such as dysentery, cholera, smallpox, flu, or in accidents caused by inexperience, exhaustion, and carelessness. In the mid 1800’s the west offered Americans a new beginning. It offered land, freedom, adventure, and wealth. During this time and estimated 300,000 to 500,000 pioneers migrated west. Many pioneers sold there farms and packed up barely anything for them and their family. They got oxen to pull there covered wagons. Most of the pioneers went west to Oregon Country. How would you feel doing all of that?
The Many Dangers Of The Oregon Trail
One common way of dying on The Oregon Trail was dehydration. Many times, pioneers would have to pay 100 dollars for a glass of water when they were dying of dehydration. That was a lot of money back then. Another common way of dying on The Oregon Trail was crossing rivers. They were probably one of the most dangerous thing pioneers did. Swollen rivers could tip over and drown both pioneers and oxen. Rivers also gave sicknesses if you drank the water and it wasn’t good. When the pioneers were crossing rivers they had to make a homemade raft that they than had to load there wagons on and go across the river. These rafts were homemade and it was pretty hard to trust them.
If the currents were a struggle they might get pushed down stream and into rapids and they could die. As the trail developed it became marked by numerous cutoffs and shortcuts from Missouri to Oregon. The basic route follows river valleys as grass and water were absolutely necessary. Travelers of The Oregon Trail often left warning messages to those journeying behind them if there was an outbreak of disease that could kill them, or bad water so the pioneers behind them wouldn’t drink it, or hostile Indians nearby, which didn’t occur often. Additionally the pioneers that died along The Oregon Trail were buried along slide the trail or they were buried on the trail.
The Life On The Oregon Trail
What’s the longest you’ve ever walked? Five miles? Twenty? Well if you were a pioneer you would walk 2,000 miles to get to their destination. About 15,000 pioneers died of over 50,000 pioneers on the long walk to Oregon city. promises of glorious farmlands and a new beginning. A lot of the time the mother and children sat in the covered wagon and sometimes got out so the father could rest. The dad and men helped guide the oxen and did many other stuff outside to get to Oregon. And while on this 2,000 mile walk to Oregon, you could only bring a few simple farm tools, cooking utensils, cast iron, and a couple study changes of clothes were about all most families took with them as far as belongings.
I know some people can’t live without some of their personal items, well they only brought about that much. But by far, the most important item for a successful life on The Oregon Trail was the covered wagon. It had to be sturdy enough to withstand the elements yet small and light enough for a team of oxen or mules to pull day after day. The wagons were made of wood with iron around the wheels like tires. The covers were made from waterproofed cotton or linen canvas. The typical covered wagon was about 10 feet long and four feet wide. Most of the settlers used oxen to pull their wagons.
The Future Of The Oregon Trail
These travels were really hard for moms and dads because there children could die on such a dangerous travel. If I was a mom on The Oregon Trail I would be devastated to find out of such an event, but if The Oregon Trail didn’t happen than lots of things that have happened now, might not have happened if the pioneers didn’t walk The Oregon Trail. We might not have as many states as we do now if they didn’t walk through all of them. Also if those mothers and children didn’t go on The Oregon Trail they might have died at there own farm. They could have died because there farmland was dying and they couldn’t afford a new farmland. As if they were to go to Oregon their was plenty of unused farmland their and plenty of fresh meet to hunt. Sometimes if the pioneers were running out of food and they couldn’t find and animals on the trail they were forced to kill some of there oxen in order to survive, but if you killed all your oxen you were left to probably die.
The Oregon Trail was used by hundreds of thousands of American pioneers in the mid-1800s to emigrate west. The trail was arduous and went through Missouri and now what is Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho and landed, finally into Oregon. Without the Oregon Trail and the passing of the Oregon Donation Land Act that happened in 1850, which helped settlement in the Oregon Territory. Without that American pioneers would have been slower to settle the American West in the 19th century.
The juny across the Oregon Trail was not so easy, as for now we have cars, and for a car to drive 2,000 miles it takes about therdy hours driving at 65 MPH which is still bad, but walking 2,000 miles takes months and months and even years! So you are pretty lucky to be living in this time than back then. Why they went on The Oregon Trail was to get better unused land.
