Have you ever thought of what could have caused many of the deaths on the Oregon Trail? You might think diseases, accidents, and maybe intentional. You might or might not have thought of this, but even nature could be violent and kill. And there were plenty of ways on how it did.
The Rocky Mountains are one of the biggest mountain ranges in the world. In the Pacific Northwest they are found in northeastern Washington, eastern Oregon, and most of Idaho. They actually extend from southern Alaska to northern Mexico, which means that they were very long. If you were going west and you went the wrong way, maybe you got off the trail, then it snowed a lot so you couldn’t find the trail, you could go the wrong way. You would end up getting lost and stranded, running out of food and eventually dying of cold and starvation. This could happen in the Rockies since they were very long. The Rocky Mountains also had a variety of animals. And it wasn’t very good to meet up with one. There were Mountain Lions and Grizzly Bears, which were a terrible danger to the pioneers. You wouldn’t want to be camping alone in the mountains. You would be found by the bears and they would kill you. They would feel threat because that is their home and they don’t like to have others barging in. Just how would you feel if someone barged in your home? It was better to stay in a group. That way they wouldn’t feel safe attacking you.
Like the Rockies, the Cascade Mountains were also a big problem to the pioneers. Even though they were close to the end of the trail, they still had to cross them. The Cascade Mountains extend from southern British Columbia, through the states of Washington and Oregon and to northern California, some 600 miles l...
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...ves and their cargo. The mountains were more important and more common worry because you might have thought winter was coming late but if it came early you could have gotten trapped in the mountains. If there were no mountains then it wouldn’t be as hard as it was going west because they were what slowed down the pioneers. There wouldn’t be so much snow and they wouldn’t waste a lot of time going up and down the mountains.
Works Cited
1. Bierstadt, Albert. "The Oregon Trail." American west. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 May 2010. .
2. Lombert, Dale. Cascade Mountains. 4th. 1997. pg.7. Print.
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3. River crossing." Hardships n. pag. Web. 15 Apr 2010. .
4. Steedman, Scott. A Frontier Fort on the Oregon Trail. New York: Peter Fredrick Books, pg.6, 12. Print.
The majestic ranges of western North America – the Rockies, the Sierra Nevada, the cascades, and the Coast Ranges – arose more recently.
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Before the infamous Dust Bowl, the lands to the West were unknown until the exploration of Lewis and Clark. On the expedition of Lewis and Clark, they discovered and explored new land west of the Mississippi River, finding beautiful nearly unused land that was only being used by some Native Americans. When the lands were found, farmers in the East quickly decided to move to the new land to expand the life they had in the East. The new land west of the Mississippi was known as the Great Plains. After discovering how beautiful and fertile the land was, many American families quickly decided to migrate to that area and make homes and their farms there. In the beginning,...
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A mere quarter-century later, virtually all this country had been carved into states and territories. Miners had ranged over the whole of the mountain country, tunneling into the earth, establishing little communities in Nevada, Montana and Colorado. Cattle ranchers, taking advantage of the enormous grasslands, had laid claim to the huge expanse stretching from Texas to the upper Missouri River. Sheepherders had found their way...
Overland pioneer route to the northwestern United States. About 3200 km, about 2000 mi long, the trail extended from Independence, Missouri, to the Columbia River in Oregon. Part of the route followed the Platte River for 870 km (540 mi) through what is now Nebraska to Fort Laramie in present-day Wyoming. The trail continued along the North Platte and Sweetwater rivers to South Pass in the Wind River Range of the Rocky Mountains. From there the main trail went south to Fort Bridger, Wyoming, before turning into the Bear River valley and north to Fort Hall in present-day Idaho. In Idaho the Oregon Trail followed the Snake River to the Salmon Falls and then went north past Fort Boise (now Boise). The route entered what is now Oregon, passed through the Grande Ronde River valley, crossed the Blue Mountains and followed the Umatilla River to the Columbia River. Shorter and more direct routes were developed along some parts of the trail, but they were often more difficult.
The Oregon Trail had an extensive impact on early America. It spread the population with approximately 50,000 people moving 2,000 miles west. The trail conceded of a group of paths. The route started in Missouri and finished in Oregon. The journey was 2,000 miles long and last about 5 months. With about 10 grave per mile by the end of a 30 year rage it was the longest graveyard in America. What was so bad with where they were at that they were willing to risk it all? Why was the rush to go west so vast? Every day the people were in fear that death was close by. What was so important to risk their lives and the lives of others for this odyssey?
To begin with, the idea of West World Expansion were started by a group of people called "Mountain Men", by people who live in the East. These people jobs were to hunt down beaver.Why? Beavers were really demanding during 1800's. Their furs were used as clothing (or hat, blankets, etc.) , which was "fashionable" during that period of time. Mountain Men have to push into the West, since beaver were extinct in Europe and they're also wiped out in the East, due to their popular demand kept rising. Rocky Mountain's beavers were their target. Going on this journey have it own pros and cons for the Mountain Men. First off, they traveled to make money for themselves and their family, and they also tell stories about their journey, which a lot of them were sold in books, making the idea of West World Expansion more popular, inspiring families and people to move to the West for themselves. But during this journey, these men faced many hardships, they requ...
Wilderness survival is a dying art. Out of my friends, a few others and I are the only ones that know how to survive. Back in the day, wilderness survival was an everyday struggle. If you knew it, you lived to worry about tomorrow. If your didn’t know it, you didn’t half to worry about tomorrow. If you threw a random number of people into a survival situation, most of them would become casualties instead to survivors.
Maryanne Kearny, Joann Crandall, and Edward N. Kearny write about the impact of the American frontier in their book the American Ways. They mention the core role of the frontier heritage in shaping the American values, and how the majority of the contemporary people tend to reveal the character of life on the frontier. Furthermore, the authors explain how the movies and the TV shows represent the cowboy as a hero, and they left behind the fact about the frontier behavior with the American Indians. Finally, the writers represent the basic values of frontier society, such as, self-reliance, inventiveness, and equality of opportunity. However, the most significant issues from the book that I would like