In southwestern Wyoming, after having run largely westward for hundreds of miles, the route trended generally to the northwest as it traversed more mountains and then followed the relatively level plain of the Snake River in what is now southern Idaho. This cutoff rejoined the Oregon and California Trails near the City of Rocks near the UtahIdaho border and could be used by both California and Oregon bound travelers. Located about half way on both the California and Oregon trails many thousands of later travelers used Salt Lake City and other Utah cities as an intermediate stop for selling or trading excess goods or tired livestock for fresh livestock, repairs, supplies or fresh vegetables. What kind of weapons did they tack on the Oregon trail? The usually lush Boise River Valley was a welcome relief. Double barreled rifles were sometimes seen on the frontier, as repeating rifles were not widely available until after the Civil War shotgun or It was one of the two main emigrant routes to the American West in the 19th century, the other being the southerly Santa Fe Trail from Independence to Santa Fe (now in New Mexico). In 1869, the Central Pacific established Kelton, Utah as a railhead and the terminus of the western mail was moved from Salt Lake City. Travelers brought books, Bibles, trail guides, and writing quills, ink, and paper for writing letters or journalling (about one in 200 kept a diary).[86]. Three types of draft and pack animals were used by Oregon Trail pioneers: oxen, mules, and horses. The army maintained fort was the first chance on the trail to buy emergency supplies, do repairs, get medical aid, or mail a letter. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson issued the following instructions to Meriwether Lewis: "The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, & such principal stream of it, as, by its course & communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado and/or other river may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent, for the purposes of commerce. The first land route across the present-day continental United States was mapped by the Lewis and Clark Expedition between 1804 and 1806. Professional tools used by blacksmiths, carpenters, and farmers were carried by nearly all. Graves were often put in the middle of a trail and then run over by the livestock to make them difficult to find. Astors expedition, in dire need of supplies and help, sent members back east in 1812. On July 4, 1824, they cached their furs under a dome of rock they named Independence Rock and started their long trek on foot to the Missouri River. Oregon Trail, also called Oregon-California Trail, in U.S. history, an overland trail between Independence, Missouri, and Oregon City, near present-day Portland, Oregon, in the Willamette River valley. McLoughlin would later be hailed as the Father of Oregon. One of the most controversial design decisions I made is familiar to everyone who has played The Oregon Trail. [99] As the trail matured, additional costs for ferries and toll roads were thought to have been about $30 per wagon.[100]. border). In the 1850 census there were about 8,000 mostly Mormons tabulated in the large Pottawattamie County, Iowa District 21. Although operating Dutch ovens and kneading dough was difficult on the trail, many baked good bread and even pies. In the early 1840s thousands of American settlers arrived and soon greatly outnumbered the British settlers in Oregon. A washboard and tub were usually brought for washing clothes. "The Oregon Trail" is a song written by Peter DeRose and Billy Hill, recorded by singing cowboy artist Tex Ritter in 1935, and by Australian country musician Tex Morton in 1936. In the late 1830s the HBC instituted a policy intended to destroy or weaken the American fur trade companies. The route from Fort Bridger to Fort Hall is about 210 miles (340km), taking nine to twelve days. [103], Disease was the biggest killer on the Oregon Trail. It gave the United States what it mostly wanted, a "reasonable" boundary and a good anchorage on the West Coast in Puget Sound. Part of a series of articles titled Before ferries were established there were several drownings here nearly every year. Between 1860 and 1870, the U.S. population increased by seven million; about 350,000 of this increase was in the Western states. From there travelers could float downstream or, after 1846, go overland through the Cascade Range to the trails western terminus in the fertile Willamette valley situated between the Cascades and the Coast Ranges to the west. In 1847 the Mormons established three ferries across the Missouri River and others established even more ferries for the spring start on the trail. Thomas Fitzpatrick was often hired as a guide when the fur trade dwindled in 1840. Its Quinault interpreter survived, and later told the PFC management at Fort Astoria of the destruction. The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, providing faster, safer, and usually cheaper travel east and west (the journey took seven days and cost as little as $65, or equivalent to $1,323 in 2021). The trail then proceeded almost due west to meet the main trail at Fort Hall; alternatively, a branch trail headed almost due south to meet the main trail near the present town of Soda Springs.[60][61]. It exited the mountains near the present Smith Fork road about 6 miles (9.7km) south of the town of Smoot. Astor, concerned the British navy would seize their forts and supplies in the War of 1812, sold to the North West Company in 1812 their forts, supplies and furs on the Columbia and Snake River. The deep, wide, swift, and treacherous Green River which eventually empties into the Colorado River, was usually at high water in July and August, and it was a dangerous crossing. [113] This passage was considerably sped up and made safer in 1855 when the Panama Railroad was completed at terrible cost in money and life across the Isthmus. The adjusted[35] 1850 U.S. Census of California showed this rush was overwhelmingly male with about 112,000 males to 8,000 females (with about 5,500 women over age 15). During the busy season there were several ferry boats and steamboats available to transport travelers to the Kansas shore where they started their travels westward. This cutoff had been used as a pack trail by Native Americans and fur traders, and emigrant wagons traversed parts of the eastern section as early as 1852. There were trails on both sides of the muddy rivers. The Pony Express built many of their eastern stations along the Oregon/California/Mormon/Bozeman Trails and many of their western stations along the very sparsely settled Central Route across Utah and Nevada. Woody Guthrie wrote and recorded a song entitled "Oregon Trail" while travelling in the region in 1941. In the 1840s-1850s it was flintlock rifles and fowling pieces/shotguns or the muskets. Flints could be obtained much more easily (made from local Without the many thousands of United States settlers in Oregon and California, and thousands more on their way each year, it is highly unlikely that this would have occurred. It was the nexus for the fur trade on the Pacific Coast; its influence reached from the Rocky Mountains to the Hawaiian Islands, and from Russian Alaska into Mexican-controlled California. None of these original statistical records have been foundthe Army either lost them or destroyed them. Other trails were developed that traveled further along the South Platte to avoid local Native American hot spots. [81] Some found oxen to be more durable. Since the game is easy for the banker, no point multipliers are applied. [85] Marcy also recommended the use of pemmican, as well as the storage of sugar in India rubber or gutta-percha sacks, to prevent it from becoming wet. Mosquitoes were constant pests, and travelers often mention that their animals were covered with blood from the bites. [84] When emigrants faced starvation, they would sometimes slaughter their animals (horses, mules, and oxen). [8] McLoughlin, despite working for the HBC, gave help in the form of loans, medical care, shelter, clothing, food, supplies and seed to U.S. emigrants. Press Keyboard right side: Alt+Enter keys to switch to full screen game play, and Alt+Enter keys to return. During that journey Robert Stuart and his companions discovered the South Pass in southwestern Wyoming, a 20-mile (32-km) gap in the Rocky Mountains that offered the lowest (and easiest) crossing of the Continental Divide. West of Topeka, the route paralleled what is now U.S. Route 24 until west of St. Mary's. People brought food, water, weapons, Because some people wanted to go to Utah and others wanted to go to Oregon. A belt and folding knives were carried by nearly all men and boys. [34] 1849 was the first year of large scale cholera epidemics in the United States, and thousands are thought to have died along the trail on their way to Californiamost buried in unmarked graves in Kansas and Nebraska. Eight of our two families have gone to their long home. Those on the north side of the Platte could usually wade the shallow river if they needed to visit the fort. Other common causes of death included hypothermia, drowning in river crossings, getting run over by wagons, and accidental gun deaths. which stretched for about 2,000 miles (3,200 km), flourished as the main means for hundreds of [84], At the time, scurvy was well-recognized, but there was a lack of clear understanding of how to prevent the disease. Immediately, campfires were started and dinner was cooked. These northern routes were largely abandoned after Britain ceded its claim to the southern Columbia River basin by way of the Oregon Treaty of 1846. 2150 South 950 East Provo, UT 84606. WebNorth American Arms is a United States company, headquartered in Provo, Utah, that manufactures pocket pistols and mini-revolvers, also called mouse guns. Press Enter Key to start or stop walking Most of the settlers used oxen to pull their wagons. Founded by John Jacob Astor as a subsidiary of his American Fur Company (AFC) in 1810, the Pacific Fur Company (PFC) operated in the Pacific Northwest in the ongoing North American fur trade. With minor exceptions they all gave substantial and often desperately needed aid to the early Oregon Trail pioneers. Lillian Schlissel, "Women's diaries on the western frontier.". Go to the classicreload site. Still seeing this message? One of the enduring legacies of the Oregon Trail is the expansion of the United States territory to the West Coast. [67] Hudspeth's Cutoff had five mountain ranges to cross and took about the same amount of time as the main route to Fort Hall, but many took it thinking it was shorter. For those travelers who were bringing their teams to the Platte River junction, Kanesville and other towns became major jumping off places and supply points. It went about 95 miles (153km) through Thousand Springs Valley, West Brush Creek, and Willow Creek, before arriving at the Humboldt River in northeastern Nevada near present-day Wells. Wash days typically occurred once or twice a month, or less, depending on availability of good grass, water, and fuel. Reaching the Sierra Nevada before the start of the winter storms was critical for a successful completion of a trip. View our guide. The trail then went to the Malheur River and then past Farewell Bend on the Snake River, up the Burnt River canyon and northwest to the Grande Ronde Valley near present-day La Grande before coming to the Blue Mountains. Although the show was canceled after six episodes, the remaining seven episodes were later aired on BBC 2 in the United Kingdom,[117] the entire series was shown in the UK on BBC1, from November 1977 to January 1978, and on April 13, 2010, Timeless Media Group (TMG) released in the USA the entire show on six DVDs, running 750 minutes. Another hazard was a dress getting caught in the wheels and pulling the person under. For some years thereafter an American public that initially had been thrilled by the reports of Lewis and Clark became swayed against the West. Type "chrome://extensions" into your browser's address bar and click enter. They were established as part of Manifest Destiny and westward expansion. Their typical flour and salted pork/bacon diet had very little vitamin C in it. The trail was still in use during the Civil War, but traffic declined after 1855 when the Panama Railroad across the Isthmus of Panama was completed. Paddle wheel steamships and sailing ships, often heavily subsidized to carry the mail, provided rapid transport to and from the east coast and New Orleans, Louisiana, to and from Panama to ports in California and Oregon. Some used goggles to keep dust out of the eyes. While unusable for transportation, the Platte River and North Platte River valleys provided an easily passable wagon corridor going almost due west with access to water, grass, buffalo, and buffalo chips for fuel. Though the numbers are significant in the context of the times, far more people chose to remain at home in the 31 states. Smith reasoned since the Sweetwater flowed east it must eventually run into the Missouri River. The Oregon Trail gave children a measure of control in their learning and did it in a memorable way. you could only carry 200 pounds of meat with you. In Idaho, it followed the Stump Creek valley northwest until it crossed the Caribou Mountains and proceeded past the south end of Grays Lake. Some of the company used it to raise their bread.[31]. The pioneer's livestock could be driven around Mount Hood on the narrow, crooked and rough Lolo Pass. Carpenters get a 2x point multiplier, while farmers get a 3x point multiplier. Until about 1870 travelers encountered hundreds of thousands of bison migrating through Nebraska on both sides of the Platte River, and most travelers killed several for fresh meat and to build up their supplies of dried jerky for the rest of the journey. By 1870, the population in the states served by the Oregon Trail and its offshoots increased by about 350,000 over their 1860 census levels. WebThe Oregon Trail is a series of educational computer games.The first game was originally developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and Which would you prefer? The time and the cost for transit dropped as regular paddle wheel steamships and sailing ships went from ports on the east coast and New Orleans, Louisiana, to Coln, Panama ($80$100), across the Isthmus of Panama by railroad ($25) and by paddle wheel steamships and sailing ships to ports in California and Oregon ($100$150). 4 Transportation [40] The Pony Express delivered mail summer and winter in roughly 10 days from the midwest to California. Initially, only upper class migrants typically used canned goods. The Lander Road, formally the Fort Kearney, South Pass, and Honey Lake Wagon Road, was established and built by U.S. government contractors in 185859. [85], Emigrant families, who were mostly middle-class, prided themselves on preparing a good table. muscet What did the people on the Oregon Trail bring with them? When you start at Independance try to buy as much supplies as you can. What was an example of a failed party? To get there, they helped build the Lassen Branch of the Applegate-Lassen Trail by cutting a wagon road through extensive forests. alt="web statistics">. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of what is now the state of Kansas and nearly all of what are now the states of Nebraska and Wyoming. In 1861, John Butterfield, who since 1858 had been using the Butterfield Overland Mail, also switched to the Central Route to avoid traveling through hostile territories during the American Civil War. There were other possible migration paths for early settlers, miners, or travelers to California or Oregon besides the Oregon trail prior to the establishment of the transcontinental railroads. Canada had few potential settlers who were willing to move more than 2,500 miles (4,000km) to the Pacific Northwest, although several hundred ex-trappers, British and American, and their families did start settling in Oregon, Washington and California. In only a few weeks at a rendezvous a year's worth of trading and celebrating would take place as the traders took their furs and remaining supplies back east for the winter and the trappers faced another fall and winter with new supplies. The Pony Express folded in 1861 as they failed to receive an expected mail contract from the U.S. government and the telegraph filled the need for rapid eastwest communication. Mountain men primarily trapped beaver and sold the skins. The theory was that the front teams, usually oxen, would get out of water first and with good footing help pull the whole string of wagons and teams across. Women also reacted and responded, often enthusiastically, to the landscape of the West. This route had the disadvantages of being much too rough for wagons and controlled by the Blackfoot tribes. A significant number of travelers were suffering from scurvy by the end of their trips. Most carried steel shoes for horses, mules, or livestock. The HBC established Fort Colvile in 1825 on the Columbia River near Kettle Falls as a good site to collect furs and control the upper Columbia River fur trade. Use of the trail declined after the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, making the trip west substantially faster, cheaper, and safer. The Applegate Trail (established 1846), cutting off the California Trail from the Humboldt River in Nevada, crossed part of California before cutting north to the south end of the Willamette Valley. By 1836, when the first migrant wagon train was organized in Independence, Missouri, a wagon trail had been cleared to Fort Hall, Idaho. No gamepads detected. After crossing the Green, the main trail continued approximately southwest until the Blacks Fork of the Green River and Fort Bridger. They had re-discovered the route that Robert Stuart had taken in 1813eleven years before. [21][22] They were led initially by John Gantt, a former U.S. Army Captain and fur trader who was contracted to guide the train to Fort Hall for $1 per person. Disease was the main killer of trail travelers; cholera killed up to 3 percent of all travelers in the epidemic years from 1849 to 1855. [106] Other common diseases along the trail included dysentery, an intestinal infection that causes diarrhea containing blood or mucus,[107] and typhoid fever, another fecal-oral disease. Upon return in early August, Simpson reported that he had surveyed the Central Overland Route from Camp Floyd to Genoa, Nevada. Between 1841 and 1869, hundreds of thousands of people traveled Wagons typically carried at least one large water keg,[84][85] and guidebooks available from the 1840s and later gave similar advice to migrants on what food to take. Used with Permission. The journey was very long and most of all HARD. Up every morning before daylight, breakfast, usually just coffee and a biscuit leftover from the ev They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. During the 1849 gold rush, Fort Laramie was known as "Camp Sacrifice" because of the large amounts of merchandise discarded nearby. A good beaver skin could bring up to $4 at a time when a man's wage was often $1 per day. Some of this increase is because of a high birth rate in the western states and territories, but most is from emigrants moving from the east to the west and new immigration from Europe. From various starting points in Iowa, Missouri, or Nebraska Territory, the routes converged along the lower Platte River Valley near Fort Kearny, Nebraska Territory, and led to fertile farmlands west of the Rocky Mountains. WebThe Oregon Trail was a 2,170-mile (3,490 km) [1] eastwest, large-wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail in the United States that connected the Missouri River to valleys in The springs here were a favorite attraction of the pioneers who marveled at the hot carbonated water and chugging "steamboat" springs. "[14] In 1830, William Sublette brought the first wagons carrying his trading goods up the Platte, North Platte, and Sweetwater rivers before crossing over South Pass to a fur trade rendezvous on the Green River near the future town of Big Piney, Wyoming. From there they went over the Teton Range via Teton Pass and then down to the Snake River into modern Idaho. After traveling the route, New York Herald reporter Waterman Ormsby said, "I now know what Hell is like. [81][82], In 1855, the typical cost of food for four people for six months was about $150 which would cost almost $5,000 today. At its pinnacle in about 1840, Fort Vancouver and its Factor (manager) watched over 34 outposts, 24 ports, 6 ships, and about 600 employees. Fort Victoria was erected in 1843 and became the headquarters of operations in British Columbia, eventually growing into modern-day Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, there have been a number of re-enactments of the trek with participants wearing period garments and traveling by wagon. The trail went to the Whitman Mission near Fort Nez Perces in Washington until 1847 when the Whitmans were killed by Native Americans. [84] Marcy also instructed emigrants to store sides of bacon in canvas bags or in boxes surrounded by bran to protect against extreme heat, which could make bacon go rancid. While horses and mules allowed themselves to be shod relatively easily, the process was more difficult with oxen, which would lie down and tuck their feet under themselves. The treaty granted the HBC navigation rights on the Columbia River for supplying their fur posts, clear titles to their trading post properties allowing them to be sold later if they wanted, and left the British with good anchorages at Vancouver and Victoria. Even though Lewis and Clark had only traveled a narrow portion of the upper Missouri River drainage and part of the Columbia River drainage, these were considered the two major rivers draining most of the Rocky Mountains, and the expedition confirmed that there was no "easy" route through the northern Rocky Mountains as Jefferson had hoped. WebRifles, shotguns and pisols on the road west Travel on the road west is, in the popular mind, inextricably associated with the possession of firearms. By the end of the 1860s, it is estimated that approximately 500,000 pioneers had traveled overland from the settled East to the uncertain West. Trapper Jim Beckwourth described the scene as one of "Mirth, songs, dancing, shouting, trading, running, jumping, singing, racing, target-shooting, yarns, frolic, with all sorts of extravagances that white men or Indians could invent. It was rough and steep with poor grass but still cheaper and safer than floating goods, wagons and family down the dangerous Columbia River. These burned fast in a breeze, and it could take two or more bushels of chips to get one meal prepared. A one way fare of $200 delivered a very thrashed and tired passenger into San Francisco in 25 to 28 days. Once they transited the Cascade's Columbia River Gorge with its multiple rapids and treacherous winds they would have to make the 1.6-mile (2.6km) portage around the Cascade Rapids before coming out near the Willamette River where Oregon City was located. On May 16, 1842, the second organized wagon train set out from Elm Grove, Missouri, with more than 100 pioneers. Several towns in Nebraska were used as jumping off places with Omaha eventually becoming a favorite after about 1855. Whereas men might deem the dangers of the trail acceptable if there was a strong economic reward at the end, women viewed those dangers as threatening to the stability and survival of the family. The Platte as it pursued its braided paths to the Missouri River was "too thin to plow and too thick to drink". As the emigrant travel on the trail declined in later years and after livestock ranches were established at many places along the trail large herds of animals often were driven along part of the trail to get to and from markets. On the return trip in 1806, they traveled from the Columbia River to the Snake River and the Clearwater River over Lolo Pass again. In 1846, the Barlow Road was completed around Mount Hood, providing a rough but completely passable wagon trail from the Missouri River to the Willamette Valley: about 2,000 miles (3,200km). Entering the northeastern corner of present-day Oregon, the trail crossed the Blue Mountains before reaching the lower Columbia River. Learn about the difficult life of pioneers in the 19th century by playing The Oregon Trail. href="http://statcounter.com/" target="_blank"> In 1841, James Sinclair, on orders from Sir George Simpson, guided nearly 200 settlers from the Red River Colony (located at the junction of the Assiniboine River and Red River near present Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) into the Oregon territory. Extra harnesses and spare wagon parts were often carried. This route was used by many gold hungry miners in 1849 and later but suffered from the disadvantage that you had to find a way across the very wide and very dry Sonora Desert. One of the side effects of cholera is acute diarrhea, which helps contaminate even more water unless it is isolated and/or treated. Only upper class migrants typically used canned goods was mapped by the Blackfoot tribes York. Midwest to California used it to raise their bread. [ 31 ] in. The Father of Oregon and others established even more water unless it isolated. 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