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. The flat Platte River valley had been left behind. After traversing a mile tableland, the emigrants had to lower their wagons down a dangerously steep drop to what seemed an oasis to them—Ash Hollow, a woodsy glen that provided sweet spring water and shade. After leaving Ash Hollow, the wagon train continued on up the sandy banks of the North Platte. The snow-crested Laramie Mountains rose in the distance.
The first of these were the multi-tiered, foot-high mound of volcanic ash and clay that became known as the Courthouse and its smaller rock companion, the Jail House—so dubbed because of their resemblance to municipal buildings in St.
Just 14 miles to the west came the more stunning Chimney Rock. Surrounded at its base by mounds of debris, the foot-high slim stone shaft was likened not only to a chimney but also to a minaret, a church steeple and a tunnel turned upside down.
One vigorous fellow took 10, steps to walk around its base. Scotts Bluff, a weathered contortion of towers and parapets that someone called a Nebraska Gibraltar, was another 20 miles down the trail. If on schedule, a wagon train reached the bluff in late June.
From there, it was another two days to Fort Laramie, a frontier outpost in present-day southeast Wyoming. Women turned to washing clothes, the men to refitting iron tires to wheels shrunken by the dry air. Prairie schooners were capable of carrying over a ton of cargo and passengers, but their small beds and lack of a suspension made for a notoriously bumpy ride. With this in mind, settlers typically preferred to ride horses or walk alongside their wagons on foot.
As traffic on the Oregon Trail increased, a bustling industry of frontier trading posts sprang up to supply food and equipment for the five-month haul. In popular jumping-off points like Independence, Missouri, unscrupulous merchants made a killing by conning frightened pioneer families into buying more provisions than they actually needed.
The overloading meant that many sections of trail became junk heaps filled with discarded food barrels and wagon parts. During the Gold Rush of , pioneers reportedly abandoned a whopping 20, pounds of bacon outside its walls. Contrary to the depictions of dime novels and Hollywood Westerns, attacks by the Plains Indians were not the greatest hazard faced by westbound settlers.
While pioneer trains did circle their wagons at night, it was mostly to keep their draft animals from wandering off, not protect against an ambush. Indians were more likely to be allies and trading partners than adversaries, and many early wagon trains made use of Pawnee and Shoshone trail guides. Hostile encounters increased in the years after the beginning of the Civil War, but statistics show only around settlers were killed by natives between and The more pressing threats were cholera and other diseases, which were responsible for the vast majority of the estimated 20, deaths that occurred along the Oregon Trail.
Along with painting messages and mottos on their wagon canvasses, pioneers also developed a tradition of carving their names, hometowns and dates of passage on some of the stone landmarks they encountered during their journey west. Those in a hurry sometimes even paid stonecutters a few dollars to carve their messages for them. Of the rest, the vast majority splintered off from the main route in either Wyoming or Idaho and took separate trails leading to California and Utah.
The California Trail was eventually traveled by some , settlers, most of them prospectors seeking to strike it rich in the gold fields. 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.
0コメント