Oregon Trail By: Emma Begley, Julie Gillen, Ryan Siwinski

Finish Start

Location Oregon Country:  Area stretched from Northern California to the Southern Border of Alaska  Yankee merchants from New England ship travel and traded furs to these tribes  Indian trails led through Rockies California and Oregon

 Mountains  Endless forests  Fertile valleys Geography

Explorers  After Lewis and Clark’s journey, fur traders searched for beaver pelts. Jedediah Smith & Jim Beckwourth

Explorers (continued)  Mountain Men- hardy trappers generally adopted Indian ways and many married Indian women.  Also used Indian trails led through Rockies California and Oregon.

Treaties and Foreign Affairs  Early 1800’s four different nations, US, Great Britain, Russia, and Spain claimed the Oregon Country.  US and Britain signed a treaty of joint occupation of region  The Convention of 1818 disregarded their wishes of being a joined region.

Treaties and Foreign Affairs  Adam Onis Treaty: Spain gave up claim and Russia followed suit  1845 more than 5,000 Americans arrived at the Oregon Country  Demanded Control

Treaties and Foreign Affairs  In the treaty of 1846 the US and Great Britain agreed to divide the Oregon Country along the 49 parallel  Serious conflict did not start until the 1850’s.  Indians traded food in return for clothes  Diseases like cholera were more deadly than Native Americans killing 10,000 pioneers between

Americans and Natives  Churches went to the Oregon Country to convert Native Americans to Christianity  Methodist minister Jason Lee arrived in Oregon in 1834  He built a Mission school for Indians In Willamette Valley

Americans and Natives  One of the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains was Narcissa Whitman  Her husband was a doctor and they lived and workes amoung the Cayuse nez Perce  Whitman’s missionaries had no success converting the Native Americans

Oregon Trail Statistics  In 1842 organized wagon trains carried masses of migrates to the west.  They were following Indian trails opened by mountain men.  2,000 mile journey  Could take 4-6 months  Very expensive: A typical family paid between $500 and $1000 to make the trip

Oregon Trail Statistics  Exhausting because they had to get the heavy covered wagons across the rivers.  The most common reason people headed for the west was to attain land.  Could be settled farmed of bought or sold at a profit

Reasons for Trail  Trade Goods  Wanted to gain the Independence of Life  No conflict arrived until the 1850’s when Americans traded with Native Americans and when disease became more deadly  Usually traveled along the Platte river in Nebraska and south pass in Wyoming  After entering Oregon they would follow the snake river and the California trail Sante Fe to the settlements in the north west

Food  Cornbread, Potato-Bread, Muffins  Bacon Pancakes  Dried fruit, corn, and meat  Tea  Cookies