Oregon Trail Journal
By: Shannon David, Core 1.
Journal Entry #1
Dear Journal,
My name is Rumpelstilskin Humple Humperdink. I am a German immigrant who came to America 4 years ago. I have a wonderful wife named Bonnie Humperdink and two daughters named Cream Cheese and Peperoncini, who are 10 and 6. I also agreed to bring Jack Sparrow, a 14 year old orphan, who was the son of my best friend from Minnesota. We started along the trail with only $150 for the long journey.
We had just started along the trail to Oregon to make a better life for me and my family. Not even an hour later along the trail we came across a hindrance!! We had to cross the Missouri River, by either fording across it or taking a nearby ferry for $25. Some other families in my group decided to try and cross the river without the ferry. I wanted to play it safe and decided to cross the river by using the ferry. As we continued on the trail we realized we needed more water. So we stopped by a stream, and since water was scarce around there, I was glad I brought 2 water barrels to carry it in. A little ways up we all decided to stop and try to hunt for the night. I told my daughters and my wife to wait by the wagon since its starting to get dark. I took Jack out with me to try and hunt and to encourage some bonding time. Turns out he was a pretty good shot and we came back with 15 pounds of deer. We ate well that night.
The next morning we set out again. After about 3 hours we ran into a Native American who told us he was from the Sioux Tribe. He asked us if we wanted to gamble. At first my wife was against it and said we should just continue on our way, but i finally persuaded her to try. In the end it was a bad move. We ended up loosing $25. Now we only had $100!!
We continued on our way until it started getting dark. I'm glad that everybody traveling with us decided to bring extra wood. It prevented us from getting cold with having the extra wood. Hope to write soon.
Sincerely,
Rumpelstiltskin Humperdink.
Journal Entry #2
Dear Journal,
Its been a while since i have written. I have just been mainly trying to keep my family alive. This morning started out well, no extreme obstacles we had to go through yet. We stop at a stream to get some fresh water and continue on. All of a sudden tragedy strikes. A snake that has slithered out of the woods came and scared one of the horses. The horse jumps causing its wagon to fall over, crushing Jack's leg who was walking beside it. After inspection we realize the bone was only a minor fracture since he jumped out of the way before the wagon could fall on him. As we continue along the trail we run into a very old, wise looking Indian. He says the only way we would be able to pass is if he thinks we are brave enough. With my wife scared half to death thinking that he will physically harm us, i step up to take the task. Everybody in our group of wagons completes the task and he supplies us with 5 extra blankets, and 5 boxes of ammunition. Our abundance of water supply is really helping us making this journey faster, because we don't have to stop at all of the streams on the way. As the night slowly sets in, we start making camp. We fall asleep peacefully without any more tragedies.
The next morning we have to cross the San Flatts River. There is a ferry i could have taken, but i decided not to because I wanted to save money for the remainder of journey. This river we had to pass had a faster current from the other river, but it was still pretty shallow. When we were crossing the river, some stuff fell out, but it was only one packet of seeds. As we continue on our journey we come across a fork in the road. We can either choose to take a long safer route or a shorter, more dangerous, route. We chose to take the shorter quicker route because we thought we brought enough ammunition to attack anybody who comes our way. As we pass through the trail, we experience no more troubles until we get to some fallen rocks in the middle of the road. Since everybody brought pick axes and shovels we were able to get through this obstacle very quickly. The rest of the day is quite boring since all we do is walk and no more accidents strike our wagon group. I hope to write soon, but my mind isn't on making sure I'm writing everyday, it's about making sure i keep my family safe.
Sincerely,
Rumpelstiltskin Humperdink.
Journal Entry #3
Dear Journal,
Everybody is a little slower at waking up today. Nobody is joking around or has that playful glint in their eyes like they used to. We are all just tired. Our food is dwindling down and we all know winter is almost upon us. As we start out on the already gloomy day, we don't get far until we run into some Native Americans Warriors. They told us that we were trespassing on their land and if they were to ever see us again they wouldn't hesitate to fire at us. As we watch the Native Americans walk away, we have a group meeting on whether we should turn around or tread on. We decided that we are going to follow along the trail, since all of us brought a lot of guns and ammunition. We make it about half way through the trail until the sun starts setting. We pick a remote place in the forest and settle down for the night.
The next day we head out early so we don't get caught by the Native Americans. Not long before we start walking another accident occurs. It turns out that a wagon wheel had came loose as we were walking. The wagon wheel breaks and the wagon falls. My youngest daughter, Peperoncini, was walking nonchalantly by the wagon when it fell on top of her!! My wife ran to the fallen wagon sobbing, calling out to Peperoncini. Luckily she was not crushed by the wagon at all. She dived out of the way from the wagon and came out alive with only a few scratches from falling. We stop a little while later to take a water break, but as we are sitting, a couple of scorpions crawled out from the rocks and stings 2 of our members in our group. Luckily none of my family members get stung and the people who did get stung were able to recover quickly in the next couple of days. We soon realize that our water supply was running low and there was no close fresh water streams to get clean water. We come across a murky pond and stop to figure out a way to purify the water to take. We soon figure out a way to get clean water, but it took up most of our day so we set off again. After about an hour we come across the Cheyenne River, which we had to cross. This river was deeper than all of the other rivers we crossed and the current was a lot faster. So i made the important decision for my family to pay the $50 to take the nearby ferry. So even though we passed through safely, our family now only had $50 left. Right after we crossed the river the Native Americans, we passed earlier, snuck up on us and start shooting at us from a distance. Our leader made a quick decision on instead of running, that we should take cover behind our wagons and then shoot back. Our plan worked and we scared them off but one other family member from the other wagon and my hand got shot by an arrow. From this i wasn't able to use it for another couple weeks. After a mile or so the trail ends and we come to another fork in the road. We can either pick between the long safer trial, or the shorter more dangerous trail. We chose to take the Massacre Trail because even though it was the most dangerous, it was also the fastest. We go to rest for the night and then at the crack of dawn of the next morning we start off again. I hope to write soon.
Sincerely,
Rumpelstiltskin Humperdink.
Journal Entry #4
We try to set out as early as possible this morning so we don't run into anymore Indians. As we start or tread farther into the trail we come by a huge fallen tree in the road. We quickly get to work on cutting out an opening to be able to let our wagons through. Even though in the end we go through, we still wasted a lot of time so we set out once again. About an hour later of walking through the cold, brisk air, we run into the Indians. From far away they start to shooting us so we try to make a run for it. By doing this i threw out some dishes to make our wagon lighter. We soon figure out that we weren't going fast enough so we took cover. We start shooting at them and eventually we scared them off, but in the process we wasted a lot of ammunition. As we near the end of this trail, we come up to the Hades Desert. Since the weather is starting to get very hot, all of our non- dried foods parished. We traveled all throughout the night, through the Hades Desert. We passed through surprisingly quickly. We soon come to the last leg of our journey, crossing through the mountains on the Snow Paths. We stop to rest when the sun starts to rise, to save energy and to make a decision the next morning.
The next morning we make the life threatening decision. We decided to try and go through the mountains, hoping that the snow will start to fall after we passed through. As we start out into the mountains we realized our decision was bad. We are blocked in by snow in front of us and behind us. We resort to cannibalism to try and survive. I hope that someway possible, that a miracle will save us all. I hope to write soon, if that means I'm alive.
Sincerely,
Rumpelstiltskin Humperdink.