The Oregon Trail
By: Raelynn Sanguinetti
April 25,1854
My name is Charles Burlum, I am a merchant from New York. Me and my family have decided to set off for a new life down the Oregon Trail.My family consist of 7 people. Me, my 20 year old brother Michael, his wife Destiny, their 2 month year old son Andrew, my wife Amber Rose, our 3 year old daughter hope, and my 12 year old son Finley.
I have 550$ at the start of my journey, and 1000 bwu's of space in my wagon. Me and my family are part of wagon train #4. Sadly we had to leave a lot of our possessions home because we can't fit a lot of stuff in our wagon. Me and my family made sure to bring lots of food, water, and tools for our expedition. Im very thankful for my wonderful children and family because they had no trouble packing the wagon and feeding the animals. today, April 25, 1854 me and my family set of for our expedition.
Day 1
We have been traveling for a couple days now no problem, until we reach the Missouri river where we were lucky enough to encounter a native american operating a fairy to take us safely across the river. Me and my family decided to pay a fee of 25$ to cross the river safely. Until water was scarce on the dry plains, but luckily we had 2 barrels of water enough to quench everyones thirst and keep us healthy.
It was a wonderful surprise that we came across animals to hunt since fresh meat is hard to get. I decided to go hunting which cost me 1 box of ammunition, sadly I'm a bad shot and didn't catch anything. Along the trail we ran into a native American who liked to gamble but we decided not to gamble and went along with our journey.
Day 2
Our train has been on the trail for about 3 weeks now, everyone is tired so we decided to stop for lunch. Tragedy struck, Catherine broke her leg and needs to rest. As we were going along our journey we ran into a Chief and all of our wagon leaders needed to approach him. To show our bravery we had to do a challenge witch Michael, our leader lost. We lost 50$ and wasted a lot of time.
As we continue our journey we realized water was hard to find but luckily everyone in our wagon train brought at least 1 barrel of water. A couple days later we came across something scary... There was a deep river that needed to be crossed but with our luck there was a native offering to take us safely across on his fairy for the cost of 45$. We took the oppurtunity and spent the money. After crossing the river my daughter hope saw that there was hunting land! Sadly I'm a bad shot and shot one of my water barrels, you don't know how bad Mrs. Burlum was! But at least I still have my rifle to protect us. Going on with our adventure I have gotten closer with my family its great to spend time with them unlike in New York when I was always working. Its late May and we have come across our first fork. We can either take the burial grounds trail witch is short but dangerous, or the shayanne river trail witch was twice as long but safer. Me and the other leaders of our train decided to take a chance and go with the burial trail!
Day 3
My son Finley thinks its pretty cool that we can fight natives even though my wife is scared to death. We heard some rumors that other pioneers were ambushed by the natives but luckily we were safe. Until tragedy struck our baby was run over but is not majorly hurt she just needs to rest. But Emily was not so lucky as she was putting on her boot a scorpion was inside and bit her foot, her brother had to suck out the poison. Our train is running low on water so we are going to try to use some well water we found and use the cloth to drain is then boil it in our dutch over to keep from getting disease. We came across another river and spent 50$ on a fairy across. Days and days pass of hot sun and dry land. After about a week our wagon encountered some angry natives we were able to get away but Annaliese was shot in her right arm. Her arm was healed after a couple weeks. We have come to another fork and I let the children decide which of the 3 roads to choose, they chose the salt flats which was very risky.
Day 4
As we went on I feel into a cactus and was in souch pain I couldn't sit it took hours to get all of the needles out of my body, witch causes extreme pain. By the time I was healed I came across another chance to hunt so I took a risk hoping to get lucky! Well I guess I didn't improve my shot because I shot my wagon wheel. Finley spent all day trying to pit the spare on. As we continued our journey didn't get any better. The kids made the wrong decision. The salt flats was the wrong choice we had to turn around and choose another route if we wanted to survive.
Me and Amber Rose decided to continue on massacre canyon road because we heard a lot of other pioneers were getting through. I guess that was the wrong decision too because as we went through the Hates desert the worst possible thing happened. My wife, kids, and everyone else in my family but me passed away from intense heat. Sometimes I would wonder why go on? But I kept going knowing that's what my family would want. Rest in peace my beloved family I will cherish your soul forever.
As I reach the end of my journey, I face one of my last options it could mean life, or death. There are 4 choices 1. We could send scouts to go look at the path to get to the Oregon trail faster then everyone else, but there may be snow blocking the way. 2. We could send scouts to see if the first path is blocked by snow but this could take a lot of time. 3. we could spend our winter in the valley with lots of food and earth but when I do get to Oregon there won't be much good land left. 4. I can turn around. I choose to send scouts because this is a life or death situation. Well that was a bad idea we froze up and we never made it to Oregon. R.I.P. to all of the lost souls on the Oregon trail.