Nonetheless, the great majority of contact between Indians and emigrants was peaceful, and many Indians benefitted the travelers. In the Grand Ronde and Umatilla Valleys, for example, Indian families often sold produce to emigrants. Gray recognized a good many of them, some of them him. They were all on horses. Bought some potatoes of them, enough for dinner…also some dry peas. As more and more emigrants crossed Indian lands during the s and early s, Native people understandably became more resistant to the invading resettlers.
The arrivals bolstered the provisional government with their support in the revisions of the Organic Law land law that created a House of Representatives with the power to pass statutes. Continued emigration added sufficient population by to aid U. The enormous influx of overland emigrants and liberal land laws caused the U. The treaties, negotiated by Isaac Stevens and Joel Palmer in , secured most tribal land in the states of Oregon and Washington.
Not long after Oregon achieved statehood in , veterans of the Oregon Trail migration realized the historic importance of their journey and resettlement of the state. Founded in , the Oregon Pioneer Association held annual meetings, published memoirs of their trail experiences, and sought to document and preserve details of the emigration. The enthusiasm for the Oregon Trail as a state icon prompted trail emigrant Ezra Meeker to retrace his route west in reverse, driving his ox-drawn wagon from Olympia, Washington, to Iowa in and again in to promote the preservation of Oregon Trail sites and history.
In , Walter Meacham, an Oregon Trail enthusiast from Baker, created the Old Oregon Trail Association, which staged sentimental public programs promoting the commemoration of nineteenth-century emigration to Oregon. In , the State of Oregon, through the Oregon Trail Coordinating Committee, sponsored a multi-year commemoration with public programs, publications, and museum exhibitions.
By the s, several museums on the Oregon Trail had opened in Oregon. Interest in the Oregon Trail continues to generate state, regional, national, and international interest. Books, articles, and ephemera publications document new findings and reprint diaries, memoirs, and descriptions of the trail and travel conditions.
As an icon of Oregon history, the Oregon Trail is likely to endure in scholarship and in heritage commemorations. Pamphlets like these both encouraged and guided emigrants to resettle in the West. Courtesy Oreg. Research Library, OrHi George Himes from the Oregon Historical Society is seated second from the right. Research Library. Illustration of one of the many trail hazards: mud. Artist was George H. Baker, and his drawings appeared in Crossing the Plains, by J.
The Oregon History Wayfinder is an interactive map that identifies significant places, people, and events in Oregon history. Applegate, Jesse. Barlow, Mary S. Bowen, William A. Seattle: University of Washington Press, Burcham, Mildred Baker. Clark, Keith, and Lowell Tiller. Terrible Trail: The Meek Cutoff. Caldwell, ID: Caxton, Faragher, John Mack. Men and Women on the Overland Trail.
New Haven: Yale University Press, Haines, Aubrey L. Historic Sites along the Oregon Trail. Gerald, MO: Patrice Press, Johnson, David Alan. Founding the Far West. Berkeley: University of Calififornia Press, Kaiser, Leo, and Priscilla Knuth, eds.
Kroll, Helen. Mattes, Merrill J. The Great Platte River Road. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, McClelland, John M. Longview Publishing, Miller, James D. Minto, John. Moore, Shirley Ann Wilson. Oregon Trail Emigrant Resources. Oregon State Library, Salem. Parkman, Francis. New York: Knickerbocker Magazine, Reid, John Phillip. Taylor, Quintard. Garcia, and Terry P. A typical wagon in the s could carry a load weighing from 1, to 2, pounds. But it depended on the number and type of animals that pulled the wagon.
Many of the emigrants overloaded their wagons with food and belongings. As a result, the trails became winding junkyards filled with items discarded by the pioneers. The litter included everything from cook stoves to furniture. Wild game became scarce due to the thousands of pioneers who traveled the trails. So, food for the trip had to be carried in the wagons. A typical meal might be coffee, bacon and beans. A bread substitute, called fried cakes, was usually served.
It was made of water and flour fried in bacon fat. Sometimes there was a dessert of dried fruit. The pioneers traveled in groups called trains, but often individual families would strike out on their own. They could travel about 16 miles per day. There were rare attacks by Indians. Up until , fewer than 50 emigrant deaths were blamed on Indian attacks.
The rims and spokes would still sometimes crack and split, of course, and in the dry air of the Great Plains, they were also likely to shrink, which eventually caused the iron tires to slip off. In fact, when rivers were too deep to be forded and there was no timber to build rafts, the travelers would remove the wheels and float the wagons across.
Once he had selected a wagon or two, the pioneer next had to decide on his draft animals. Most emigrants, including Captain Burnett, swore by oxen.
Unfortunately, they also had their drawbacks. Their cloven hoofs tended to splinter on mountain rocks, and oxen could only do about 15 miles a day, while mules did Prosperous families usually took two or more wagons because the typical wagon did not have a large carrying capacity.
After flour sacks, food, furniture, clothes and farm equipment were piled on, not much space remained. Space was so limited that, except in terrible weather, most travelers cooked, ate and slept outside. The members of the Applegate train often killed buffalo and antelope, but a more dependable supply of meat was the herd of cattle led behind the wagons.
Once the wagons were loaded, the animals gathered and the emigrants reasonably organized, Captain Peter Burnett finally gave the signal for the Applegates and the others to move out. The train included nearly 1, persons of both sexes, more than wagons, oxen and nearly loose cattle. The Great Emigration of had begun. Out on the plains in the middle of May, the grass was luxuriant and the wildflowers out in force.
The spring storms were often startling in their power. The first miles were a hubbub. Ill-broken oxen and reluctant mules either bolted or sulked in harness, entangled themselves in picket ropes or escaped entirely and sped back to the starting point. When not busy rounding up livestock, the exuberant males of the party quarreled over firewood and water holes and raced for preferred positions in line. Still, for the most part, the travelers had it relatively easy during the first few weeks on the trail as they headed northwest toward Nebraska and the Platte River.
Despite the occasional thunderstorm, the weather was usually pleasant. It was a good time to learn to handle a prairie schooner. Jesse Applegate wrote about the workings of a typical day on the trail:. This corral of the plains was made the night before by parking the wagons in a circle. The rear wagon was connected with the wagon in front by its tongue and ox chains.
It was strong enough to keep the oxen from breaking out, and also served as a barricade in case of Indian attack. Promptly at seven, the bugle sounded, and the wagon train was on its way. Women and children often walked beside the trail, gathering wild flowers and odd-looking stones. Boys and young men on horseback kept the loose stock from straying too far, as they trailed along behind the wagons. At noon, we stopped to eat.
Oxen were turned loose with their yokes on, so they might graze and rest. Sometimes the officers of the train got together at noon to consider the case of someone who had violated the rules or had committed a crime.
He was given a fair trial and, if found guilty, was sentenced according to the nature of his offense. All through the afternoon the oxen plodded, and when the wagons arrived at the spot chosen by the guide as a camping place, preparations were made to spend the night.
Livestock were driven out to pasture, tents were pitched, fires built, and supper was on its way. Perhaps hunters came in with choice parts of buffalo or antelope, and everyone enjoyed a feast. After supper, the children played their favorite games, the elders gathered in groups and talked, perhaps making plans for the new homes to be built at the end of the Oregon Trail. Some of the young folk danced to the music of the fiddle or accordion, while those more serious minded sang their favorite songs, some religious, some sentimental.
But youth was not to be denied, the trek was a great adventure, and life stretched far ahead. Many a troth was plighted at the impromptu gatherings along the trail, beside a dim campfire. Various companies took turns at guard duty, one night out of three.
Some slept in tents, some in wagons, some on the ground, under the stars. Usually their sleep was undisturbed save perhaps by the sharp yelp of a coyote on a nearby hill, and the challenging bark of the camp dogs.
The prairie schooners crossed the Big Blue, a tributary of the Kansas River, about two weeks out of Independence. The trail then swung up into Nebraska, where it ran along the south bank of the Platte River. The emigrants marveled at the Great Plains. Still, few travelers found reason to complain about the buffalo. The animals were a source of meat, and buffalo chips were a valuable source of fuel on the treeless plains.
Trouble with the Indians was rare, especially in the s, when Indians usually provided information about the trail ahead and were sometimes even hired as guides. Indians on their pinto ponies, some of these dragging laden travois, trailed by, gazing curiously at the ox-drawn wagons. They often stopped to swap buffalo robes and buckskin moccasins, fringed shirts and leggings for tobacco, ironware and worn-out clothing.
Precautions were still taken. At each stop, the wagons were drawn up into a corral. This also served as an enclosure for the livestock. Almost never did an Indian war party descend upon a circle of wagons. Such a strategy would have assured heavy casualties among the Indians. Stragglers or small groups, however, were attacked on occasion by Indians, who were mostly interested in the horses and supplies. It is estimated that prior to the California gold rush, only 34 whites and 25 Indians were killed in fighting on the Oregon Trail.
Relations between white travelers and Indians did sour in the s. In September , the small Utter wagon train was attacked by Bannock Indians and only 14 of 44 travelers made it to Oregon. Indian danger would be such a problem in the summer of that the U. Army would forbid travel by single wagons in western Kansas.
But far more prevalent on the trail than Indian attacks were the everyday trail hazards of accident and disease. Little was known about health and sanitation, and no vaccines were available.
The sick lay on pallets in the hot, debilitating confines of their wagons with only the wagon cover to protect them from the direct rays of the sun. The emigrants were prone to dose themselves with great quantities of medicine at the first sign of illness—the theory being that the larger the dose, the quicker the recovery. Many died of overdoses, especially of laudanum. One of the first deaths in the Applegate train was that of 6-year-old Joel Hembree.
They were now miles west of the Missouri River. Marcus Whitman and his nephew Perrin Whitman proved to be excellent guides as the wagons crossed into more challenging terrain. If it is only a few miles a day. Keep moving. Death was inevitable for some, but babies were born, bringing new courage to the travelers. The trail followed the north fork, but first the travelers had to cross the south fork.
It was at least a half-mile wide and the water was high. The wagon wheels were taken off, and the wagon bodies, by then long bereft of their caulking, were covered with buffalo skins to waterproof them. The prairie schooners thus lived up to their nicknames. We wonted thare hides for to make bots to craws the river.
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