Informational Report
It's about Westward Expansion
Inroduction
Gold Mining
The Wagon
Oregon Trail and Around Panama
TRANSPORTATION
During Westward Expansion, people from the east would travel to the west for gold and land (add where this was taking place). It was a great opportunity but people had to explore new land, travel over the Rocky Mountains, and settle in the Great Plains to reach the west. In addition, if they lived near the Erie Canal, they traveled by boat for the first 800 miles then had to travel 1600 miles on a covered wagon.Therefore, if the Erie Canal was not created in 1825, people would have had to travel 2400 miles by wagon. The wheels of the wagons were made of wood and the water wagons had waterproof tops. These wagons cost about 1000 dollars each. Even though they seemed ready, it was a long and hard journey. Though it seemed that was the only way, there was another way. This way you would have to travel on boat for the whole ride and go around South America into California. The wagons did have wheels with rims allowing the wagon to go through mud. A lot of people decided to go and get as much gold as they could. An estimate of 300000 people went! The most famous wagon was the Conestoga Wagon. This had really helpful wheels which prevented the Conestoga from turning into a boat. However, these wagons were so heavy you need a team of four to six horses/cattle to carry them! Isn’t that insane? These wagons were invented in the 1700s and were called “Camels of the Prairie”.
Recourses
People packed many supplies but some ran out of supplies and died. People brought animals, water, food, etc. People drank and ate the water and food and the animals moved the wagon or carried supplies. Other items were guns and bullets to defend when pioneers got attacked. People also brought things to repair the wagon if it broke. Also clothing to protect them from weather. (Make sure this is a complete sentence.) Without all these items, it would have been very difficult to get across the country due to all the disasters. People used these items carefully, they tried to save their food. It may have seemed that people died quickly when supplies were lost, but some survived on foot. Only people who used their supplies carefully succeeded. The good thing though is that there were stores. It would be nearly impossible for people to have survived on this trip without these stores. They would sometimes find abandoned supplies or items from nature.