Our next chapter, Manifest Destiny, outlines the many reasons Americans expanded beyond the Mississippi River during the 1800s. One of the most famous routes for westward travel was the Oregon Trail. This land voyage was very difficult, but successfully traversed by countless pioneers hoping for a fresh start in the West.
For this week's blog, visit this website and read at least 10 of the articles you find. Familiarize yourself with the trail, who traveled on it, where it lead and what life was like for the migrants. In the comment section, describe some of the more interesting findings you uncovered from your reading.
P.S. There is a section on this website where you can play the old Oregon Trail game (which was a mega hit when I was in 5th grade) online. It's kind of corny, but it does represent the decisions necessary for survival and highlights some of the historical places the pioneers would have traveled. It's fun, in a nostalgic sort of way, and you should take some time and play it!
During eight decades in the 1800s the Oregon Trail served as a natural corridor as the United States moved from the eastern half of the continent toward the west coast. The Oregon Trail ran approximately 2,000 miles west from Missouri toward the Rocky Mountains to the Willamette Valley. It began as an unconnected series of trails used by Native Americans. In the 1830s missionaries followed the still faint trail along the Platte River and the Snake to establish church connections in the Northwest. A combination of economic and political events in the 1840s converged to start a large scale migration west on what was then known as "The Oregon Road." Joel Walker is credited as the first settler to make the complete trip with a family in 1840.
ReplyDeleteI think the most interesting things I saw were the landmarks, and among those were Devil’s Gate and Soda Springs.
ReplyDeleteFor all those who didn’t read those, lemme give you a brief description:
Devil’s Gate: Basically an anticlimactic name for a large gash in... I don’t know... possibly a mountain range? The pioneers (as well as the natives) were afraid of this pass because they thought it had “supernatural powers.” I’m not really how sure supernatural a giant rock is, but I guess we all have our things.
Soda Springs: This was a spring of soda-like water. It was carbonized because of volcanic junk below. The pioneers seemed to think it had healing properties, so they drank it, bathed in it... etc. Though it did cause them stomach problems.
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Ok, so I just read random articles and this is what I came up with: pioneers hunted bison so much they became endangered, moms loved their roses, and one cow caused some chaos. First, pioneers needed to hunt for their food to survive. Bison was a favorite because of how much meat you got from one animal. There were between 40-100 million bison in America so extinction wasn’t a problem until there ended up with about 1,000 left. They eventually repopulated. Pioneer women would carry roses from their gardens at home on the journey west, so they could have a new garden and a part of home with them. That meant they had to protect the flowers from the cold and dehydration. Lastly, a cow wandered off during the journey and it came to a native camp, and by the time they tried to get it back, the natives had eaten it. The chief felt bad and tried giving them a horse, but an army lieutenant was still angry and every started shooting each other. Sadly, the chief was killed in the fight (183)
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that interested me was that even though these 'trailblazers' were travelling under such bad conditions, they still had Thanksgiving dinner! They couldn't bring along nice food because it would go bad so they ate what food they had recently hunted such as deer. Another interesting thing is that sometimes they would come across pieces of land that looked like 'space landscaping.' These pieces of land looked like they could have been from outer space! Also, they found strange things like waterfalls with no river under them and frozen lakes under the hot desert sand. (100)
ReplyDeleteThe pioneers had very hard journeys ahead of them when they started on the trail. When people in Missouri started their journey there were people in Texas fighting at the Alamo for their independence. We all know how that went everyone in the Alamo except for a few were killed. For the people on the trail they went on to find a new life in Oregon. The pioneers hunted to survive and their favorite animal to hunt was a buffalo because not only did it taste good, but it weighed a ton literally. I also saw that there were many other things used besides wagons to cross the trail. They used carriages or some people just took their horse and rode it all the way there.(126)
ReplyDeleteOne interesting thing I found was that the fiddle was the main thing for entertainment. When they stopped and took a break, someone would always pull out their fiddle and toot away! It said that the songs they played generally had two messages: hope for a new life or despair of the crappiness of the journey. Another thing I found very interesting, was some of the travelers said they encountered paranormal activity. A lot of them were probably just paranoid like me right now because I am alone in the cold typing this, but you get the point. Some said that the people that died on the trail haunted them. This one story said this dude and his wife found human skeleton bones and then in the night heard moaning. Creepy… (132)
ReplyDeleteI think that some of the things that the people did was so interesting! I think that one of the most interesting things was about how they still kept to their "heritage" in some ways. For an example, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was a very big part last year. Even though they didn't have the nicest of things they still made it work. They couldn't get the nicest of things while they traveled. But when it was thanksgiving they did what they knew to do which was kind of cool. They found what they could for it too. They also were thankful no matter what. pretty cool to see that. (107)
ReplyDeleteWe'll I read a lot about the organ trail and wow this is some interesting stuff. One thing I really liked was the one about pets, they treated pets just like their family. But they left them at home. Some people would adopt pets or tame them. One girl caught a squirrel and kept it as her pet. The same girl also caught an antelope. Most of the animals caught found a way to escape.
ReplyDeleteAn other article I found was with the clothes they said there were some hard weather conditions, their clothes were ruined. They went through mud and rain. (101)
I agree with Maggie! I really liked the on about the animals. I love that they treated them as if they were a person as well. When some people had to leave their pets at home, it made them very sad. One girl caught a squirrel to keep as a pet. She caught an antelope as well I think that it was a good idea because they could have a friend to be there for them! I think that it is cool that they were able to tame the animals to keep with them. If these are just two examples, it would be interesting to hear more. They must have had some of what we consider today strange pets! (119)
ReplyDeleteI think that the fact that they had animals and stopped to smell the roses was most interesting! Even though they went through a lot of trials and challenges, they had some things to entertain them and give them hope. You might as well do something fun. I liked the waterfall without a "pond" and the girl with the squirrel. It's encouraging to know that something good can come out of a big move like this one. With all of the bad stuff that happened to the people that we have learned about, it's cool to know something good came out of it. (104)
ReplyDeleteThere were many things that interested me about the Oregon Trail and I would write about all of them but I can't so here's the highlights. The thing that caught my eye the most was the fact that they kept a great outlook on things the whole time and kept their spirits up. For example, they would pull out their fiddles and enjoy themselves every now and then while even stopping and enjoying the scenery. But the thing that I get from the Oregon Trail is the true grit of early Americans and their will to succeed. That's what made our nation great and we need to get back to that attitude one way or another.(116)
ReplyDeleteOk so one of the things that stuck out to me is how a lot of people probably at a first glance thought that traveling west would be the romantic/Indiana-johns-style peek of their lives (not that they would know who he is). In all reality however, if that’s all that you’re in it for the trip for you probably ended up sucking. Several times all of the men the girls were moving west with died, and I do mean all, and the women had to turn around…. That’s not really a nice wedding present. I also loved the suddle humor and irony stories of the trip held. So there was a newly married couple who was going west to be missionaries and the people who ended up having to stay with them in their wagon ended up being her ex-boyfriend and his wife….AWKWARD!!!! There was also this river/lake that most people would stop at and believed that it was magical and would heal you but they would end up drinking to much and making themselves sick*several face palms*.180
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