Essay On Oregon Trail

The promise of land was not the only thing that create Oregon fever amongst Americans in the Midwest. Americans started hearing stories about how crops grew way bigger in the west than they do in the Midwest. These stories gave many farmers Oregon fever. They went to Oregon in hopes of finding more fertile land to establish farms on. Now with the decisions to start the travel to Oregon, did Americans really understand what the six month journey entailed?
Thousands of Americans started selling off their land in the Midwest and using the money to buy things such as ox and wagons to travel west. They also bought things such as cows, horses, chickens, and pigs to use as food and labor. Americans had to be careful with what they chose to bring of their journey to Oregon since they could only carry so much in a covered wagon. Mainly people chose to bring the necessities and brought few keepsakes with them on their journey.
While traveling, Americans would travel from the time the sun got up to about the time the sun went down if not after. The journey to Oregon was so long that Americans had to only stop for a few hours at a time in order to eat and get a few hours of sleep. Many people who traveled the Oregon Trail would stop in caravans. When stopped women mainly did most of the work

while traveling the trail.Women were responsible for unpacking and packing the covered wagon on most occasions. They were also responsible for cooking all meals, taking care of the children and even caring for the livestock. The men mainly watched for Indians and helped with hunting when necessary.
Living out of a covered wagon wasn’t the worst part of traveling the Oregon Trail.

The weather that Americans traveled through caused more problems than good. The Oregon Trail isn’t a flat trail. There are many hills and mountains that need to be climbed and rivers that need to be crossed. During the time on the Oregon Trail, the weather could make those obstacles a deadly scene. When climbing mountains, the dirt path could be soaked with water. The amount of rain or snow that had fell made it hard for some of the ox to pull the wagons up the hill. Americans would have to get out and help push their covered wagon up these steep hill. This caused many injuries and death in some

cases.
Americans also had to be careful with crossing rivers. During the late fall and winter, the temperatures of the water could cause a person to get sick, let alone die from the lack of medical care. Americans also had to be careful crossing rivers since their wagons and animals were so heavy. They had to be careful not to let animals drown. According to Shannon, more than half of the pioneers, along with their cattle drowned in 1844 when trying to cross the Columbia Gorge.