Western Migration
Part I: Why take the Oregon Trail?
The Oregon Trail was not one trail but a lot of trails that took people to different places.
Distance: about 2170 miles
Duration: 4-6 months
Average miles per day: 15 miles
Math Activity
Oxen move about 2 miles an hour. If your wagon train went 15 miles a day, how many hours a day did you have to walk?
Why take the Oregon Trail?
Settler went for different reasons including:
Let’s take a look at these three main reasons.
Why go for Money & Land?
Farming in Lane County
Many early Oregon settlers got free land from the US government, but they had to farm to keep it.
Wheat, corn, potatoes, grapes and onions were all popular crops to grow for sale. They also grew vegetables for their families, herbs and medicinal plants.
Math Activity
A farm produced:
40 pounds of grapes
320 pounds of wheat
160 pounds of corn
Challenge Questions
Orchards
Many people planted orchards to make money. Cherries, hazelnuts (filberts), plums and pears all grew well in Oregon.
Oregon is the birthplace of the Bing Cherry - one of the most popular cherries in the world!
Math Activity:
You bought 11 cherry, 15 plum, 4 pear and 10 apple trees for your orchard.
Challenge Questions:
Vocabulary you might need
Agriculture - the science of farming, including crops and animals.
Orchard - a piece of land planted with fruit or nut trees.
Plow - a farming tool used for cutting ruts in the soil for planting seeds or irrigation.
Irrigation - to provide water to crops.
Settler - a person who moves with a group to live in a new area.
Pioneer - person who is the first to explore or settle a new area.
Cultivate - prepare land for crops or gardening.
Crop - a plant grown for food.
Homestead - a house and land given to a person by the US government to farm.
Would you want a farm or an orchard? Explain your reasons.
What would you grow?
Why go for Religious Reasons?
The idea that the United States was special and God wanted its people to move West.
Painting Left: American Progress by John Gast, 1873 depicts the idea of Manifest Destiny. Library of Congress.
Vocabulary
Discrimination - the unfair treatment of different groups of people, especially because of their race, age, or sex.
Most families traveling on the Oregon Trail would carry a Bible.
They wrote important dates like birthdays inside.
Sometimes they kept photographs inside to keep them safe.
1850s Bible
Do you practice reading aloud?
Children on the Oregon Trail did! They often used the family Bible to practice their reading skills.
Adventure
Some people wanted to live on the “American Frontier.”
As the frontier moved west so did they.
Oregon was seen as a land of opportunity.
Photo: participants in Oregon Trail Pageant c.1950s.
Vocabulary
Adventure - new and exciting, usually dangerous, experience or activity.
Frontier - the very edge of settled land, beyond is the wilderness.
Would YOU go on the Oregon Trail?
If you were an adult, do you think you would go on the Oregon Trail?
Would you start a new business, make a farm or pan for gold?
Photo: Miner panning for gold in the Cottage Grove area.
Why would you go on the Oregon Trail? If you would NOT go, why not?
Draw a picture of what you would be doing in the 1800s. Show someone your drawing and tell them about it at school or home.
Native Americans in Oregon and Lane County
Native people changed the land before pioneers arrived.
Camas flower and bulb.
Long before pioneers arrived, tribes like the Kalapuya, grew food, hunted, fished and traded with neighbors.
Native peoples also burned land to create better areas to grow camas, a bulb that was a big part of what they ate.
Can you think of flowering bulbs that we eat in Oregon today?
The Oregon Trail Forever Changed the West
We hope you will enjoy this series including:
Part I - Why take the Oregon Trail?
Part II - Pack Your Wagon
Part III - Families on the Oregon Trail