Oregon Trail
A Pioneer's Story
Day 1
April 25, 1854
My name is Theresa Black and today's the day. We're finally setting off. My sister thinks I'm as crazy Old Bob who lives alone in the woods and lives off of squirrels, especially since I'm on my own with four kids. It hasn't been an hour and we have already encountered problems. I must cross the Missouri River. There's a ferry, but I don't have that kind of money. Little John won't stop crying making the situation all the more stressful.We made it across! Good grief if John doesn't stop crying I'm gonna throw him in the river! I've sent Albert and Leon hunting. They came back with 15 pounds of buffalo. Great job they did. We've stopped for the night. I'm cooking, the kids are playing, and John finally fell asleep. We have a rough journey ahead of us I hope we make it.
Day 2
Tragedy has hit one of my fellow band wagons. Their son's leg got crushed by a wheel, luckily he survived. Apparently the horses got spooked by a snake. We move on, and get intercepted by an Indian chief, I say he's up to no good but our group stops anyways. He says our leader must pass a test for us to continue. She fails, and now I have to give up my ammunition. Nobody ever listens to me.
We have to cross another river. I didn't take the ferry, and lost a tenth of our supplies. I am now regretting it, but 45 dollars seemed to much at the moment. We stopped to hunt again, Leon accidently shot one of our water barrels even though he was using a steel trap. I really have no idea how he managed it. He got a slipper to the head for that stunt.
Day 3
It seems like we're barely moving, the summer sun makes things even worse. Water is scarce, and I'm starting to have second thoughts on traveling through Oregon. So far I haven't seen any of the rumored riches of the west. Our wagon tipped over and I lost more supplies.We came across some puddles of water, but it's filthy so our band needs to figure out how to filter the precious liquid. We decided to strain through a cloth before boiling it in a dutch oven.
Another river must be crossed to continue. This time I pay the ferryman 50 dollars. I'm not willing to risk my children again. Those who take their chances lose a lot of supplies and one of the families' kids is swept away by the current. We find the body later on and stop to bury him. We must have faith that we will make it.
Day 4
As winter approaches, temperatures start to drop. At a fort we stop by, I buy some more ammunition, I have a feeling we're going to need it. Mostly because our group decided to take the shorter route through some land sacred to the Natives. I was right, we got attacked and I had to use my rifle. Somebody in our group got shot in the arm by an arrow. I lost more supplies while we were running away.
Our last stop before going into the mountains is a small settlement. We are posed with the choice to go back or keep going and risk getting snowed in. If we make it through we'll get to the valley within months. If we go back and wait till spring by the time we get there. there will be no land left to claim. We decide to go on. I have to leave more supplies behind in order to keep the load lighter, we will need to if we want to scale the mountain. We got snowed in, and resorted to cannibalism before freezing to death.........
Oregon Trail Memorial
Oregon Trail
Wagon
M., Dan. "Wagon Used along Oregan Trail." Flickr. Yahoo!, 18 May 2010. Web. 06 Mar. 2015.