Here is a family in Missouri (credit: State Historical Society, Columbia) stopping before heading farther West. Many of them later moved north to Oregon. One other interesting fact: Many people who started out for the Oregon Trail changed their minds and turned for the California Trail after hearing over-stated stories of gold riches in California. This photo is a great illustration of why the journey took so long: when people traveled together, they had to stop every time there was a breakdown, which happened often. ![]() You can tell this was relatively early in their trip – the canvases aren’t yet dark and tattered. They thus needed to carry food, clothing, a full set of tools and cookware, bedding, weapons, and spare wheels and canvas to address the inevitable breakdowns along the way.Ī view of a Conestoga Wagon, which was a precursor to the Pioneer Wagon, which was typically a simple farm wagon outfitted with canvas covers.Ī view of a team of Pioneers on the Oregon Trail. These wagons carried not only everything the families needed to survive the grueling, months-long, 2,000-mile journey, but also as much as they could carry to help them set up their new home. The pioneers took one of three trails - the Sante Fe Trail, the California Trail, or the Oregon Trail - and they traveled in large Covered Wagons. These wagons were used primarily to transport goods to market. This photo from around 1900 in Oklahoma shows a modernized version of what the Pioneers used. It was the largest voluntary overland migration of people in history, egged on not only by the lure of the West, but by a journalist who declared it was American’s “manifest destiny” to expand to the edge of the continent. ![]() From 1840-1860, hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and families moved west either seeking trade with Mexico, farmland or gold in California, or a new homestead in Oregon. One of the more unique periods in American History is the Great Westward Migration.
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