More than dysentery, buffalo hunts, and wagon wheels

This weekend we went to Baker City, OR to the Oregon Trail museum.  I have always had an interest in the Oregon Trail and life as a pioneer probably due to the popular Oregon Trail computer game along with TV shows such as Little House on the Prairie and Dr Quinn Medicine Woman.  During the summers when I was younger I would make my brother play out scenes from the computer game with me. We would make a covered wagon out of the kitchen table and chairs and then run around the yard shooting buffalo and deer for food.

When we drove up from Idaho we actually were driving along the old Oregon Trail.  Coming across the strange rolling treeless lands that then turn into large Mountainsides was surreal for me in 2013 in a compact car. I cannot image how the pioneers felt in the 1800s coming across in a covered wagon!

I just wonder why would anyone do it? Six months of hardship to come to an unexplored untamed land.  My mom asked me this question of why people traveled the trail and my first answer was they were in search of gold but that didn't seem quite right so I did some Google research and this is what I found:

It  all started in 1803 with Lewis and Clark who were sent out by Thomas Jefferson to discover the newly added lands west of the Mississippi.  The route they established paved the way for the Oregon Trail. The route was actually traveled by fur traders and missionaries before the wagons set out. One of the major pushes to go out west actually started in 1843 when a law was passed that allowed married couples to claim up to 640 acres at no cost  other than to work and improve the land.  Unmarried settlers could claim 320 acres.  This law lasted until 1854.

In 1848 the California Gold rush brought additional pioneers but mostly men. 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. Some emigrants continued to use the trail well into the 1890s.

Most often pioneers walked the 2000 miles which is a little less than the Appalachian Trail and I'm pretty sure they didn't have nice hiking boots! It started in Independence Missouri and ended in Oregon City, Oregon. 


The wagons Were 4 feet wide which is smaller than what I imagined. We got to take our picture by some at the museum.

Contrary to popular belief Indian attacks were rare as relations with Native American's along the way were more amiable.  More common threats were being run over by a wagon, accidental gun shots (still common today?), and Cholera. 

The museum had a walking trails that led to part of the actual trail where supposedly you could see ruts like in this picture.

 

However we only saw a marker for the trail.

I guess some people could question my decision to leave friends, family, and jobs to travel to Oregon today.  So maybe I'm not that much different than the pioneers!