The Oregon Trail
By: Ben
11-28/17
Oregon
You are walking on a dusty trail along your wagon, your legs are about to crumble you have been eating nasty food since the time you started on the trail. you have been on the trail you are about to fall over. “no!” you say “I must make it to oregon and start over I’ve made mistakes before but now I can start over in a new land with a new life.” this is what it was like for most people on the oregon trail they were traveling to a new land called oregon and chanting “wagon Ho!”or “forward to oregon!”
The Basics
The oregon trail was a wagon trail leading to oregon and passing though many mountain ranges and it was almost impossible to avoid diseases. The oregon trail was important part in Westward expansion mainly because it was the longest trail in Westward expansion reaching about 2000 mile long on the main trail. The main trail started in Independence Missouri, passed through Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho and ends in Oregon city, Oregon but you can take a different trail splitting off in Idaho then through Nevada, and then California up into Oregon to Oregon city. You would have to mostly eating bread and meat and form wagons into a circle and sleeping on the ground under the star covered sky. Most people traveled to oregon for a new life and start a new way of life bringing only special personal belongings and essential for the trail and seeing amazing things on the way to oregon like chimney rock, independence rock, gentle streams and mighty rivers, deep valleys the tall Rockies, and majestic plains.
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky mountains where a giant mountain range splitting America into different sections. when the pioneers got there they had to leave many personal belongings behind so they can get through the Rockies very quickly before winter came.Most people did not know how hard it is to pass the rockies in the winter because the rockies slow you down a lot if you get stuck there in the winter it can increase the trip from about 6 months to around 7 to 8 months because of its rough terrain and heavy snow in the winter.
Obstacles On The Trail
Most pioneers on the trail got very deadly diseases such as dehydration, dysentery, snakebite, and most often cholera causing 10 grave stones a mile alone one thing that also slowed people down was the death of others. Another obstacle was that pioneers had to cross many river such as the Platte river,Snake river,and the Columbia rivers sometimes friendly native american helped pioneers cross river yet some oxen got very tired while swimming and drowned or got stuck in a current and got washed away and drowned a safer way to cross rivers where by using bridges or ferries but they required fees to pass through or use a ferry so most people took the risk of getting washed away in the stream or drowning.
The Oregon Territory
The oregon territory was occupied by the British and Americans they decided to put the argument of whose land it is to the side for the time being.but when the travelers on the oregon trail came and then they demanded that they get land up to 54-50 north latitude near the southern border of modern day Alaska but the British only gave up to 44-40 north latitude so america can have the fertile soil of oregon and the british can still maintain vancouver island.
Conclusion
The Oregon trail was very historical in Westward expansion and populated much of the land west of the Rocky mountains and helped America become the America we know today and some were willing to risk their lives to see the amazing land of Oregon territory yet some did not make the journey. Some people changed American history just by making the journey all the way from Independence, Missouri to Oregon city, Oregon
Bibliography
Burger, James P. The Oregon Trail. The Rosen Publishing Group, 2002.
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