Wich's Caravan

25 Pioneers on the Oregon Trail 

The students in this class will participate in a simulation as we study Westward Expansion. Students will keep journals about the hardships and lifestyle they "experience" on the Oregon Trail. This page will be a source for students and parents to track our progress through this unit!

Day 1: Independence, MO

We arrived in Independence, Missouri by steamboat from St. Louis, Missouri on May 1, 1849. Independence is crowded with other pioneers preparing for their journeys. They are waiting. Waiting for the right time of year, good weather, and for all their caravan members to arrive. 

Every wagon departing with our caravan is present and packing up last minute supplies in their wagon. With 2,000 miles of the Oregon Trail ahead of us we will need hundreds of pounds of flour, sugar, coffee, salt, and much more. We will try to fit as much in our wagon as we can. Our wagon is filled to the top of the canvas ceiling; there is no room for us to sit inside. We have also brought many tools and supplies in our wagon, but any items we did forget can be purchased or traded for in the town.

Independence was once described as a place where "A multitude of shops had sprung up to furnish emigrants with necessaries for the journey. The streets were covered with men, horses, and mules. There was an incessant hammering and banging from a dozen blacksmith's sheds, where the heavy wagons were being repaired, and the horses and oxen shod. Droves of travelers arrive every day with bright, eager faces excited for the journey ahead of them." We will camp here in Independence for a week, settle our supplies, and then we will move out onto the Oregon Trail. 

Day 19  - Ft. Kearney & Crossing Platte River

We have been on the Trail for over two weeks. Each day we try to travel at least fifteen miles. Except for our 8th day. On our 8th day on the trail we could only walk about six miles because the blisters that had formed on our feet were too painful to keep going.

We were able to stop for rest in Fort Kearney yesterday. We were able to pick up some new tools for repairing our wagon that we have heard we will need. We have eaten about 150 lbs of our food already.

Today starts out very hot and humid, and after hours of walking in the oppressive hear you feel drained and wind whipped. Day after day, the open prairie rolls slowly by as your wagon travels toward the ford that crosses the muddy Platte River. Now you face a dangerous crossing of the Platte River which is running high.

You have two options:

1.       Wait and hope that the river level will drop so that you can ford the river without having to float your wagon across.

2.       Try to cross the River now by floating your wagon across.

Will you choose to wait out the river and risk dwindling your food supply even further and set your journey back by several days? Or will you risk crossing Platter River and risk losing supplies, animals, and even people?

Day 49  - Ft. Laramie/Plains & Weather

We have spent thirty more days on the Oregon Trail. We have been close to running completely out of our food supply several times, only to be saved by a couple of our caravan members and their ability to hunt buffalo. Most of what we see is prairie land. It is hot and dry. There have been some pretty sites along the Trail like Courthouse Rock and Chimney Rock, which are massive landmarks made of clay and rock and soaring into the sky more than 400 feet! There have also been some terrifying sites, like the hundreds of graves we have counted along the Trail.

Our wagon rolls on across the open prairie, passing Scott's Bluff and a prairie-dog city that stretches as far as the eye can see. Fluffy white clouds drift in from the West but soon they begin to build and darken. Within minutes they take on a frightening gray-green cast, and the wind begins to whip in earnest.

As a caravan, we are faced with a decision. How will we deal with this nasty weather? Spin for the answer!

1.        If you spin a 1-5, the caravan decides to tie down the wagon and secure the livestock to prepare for the storm.

2.        If you spin a 6-10, the caravan continues on its way, unaware of how dangerous a prairie storm can be.

After the storm has passed, our caravan sets back out onto the Oregon Trail. We are approaching Ft. Laramie. According to J.M. Shively's guidebook for the Oregon Trail, although "you are now 640 miles from Independence... it is discouraging to tell you that you have not yet traveled one third of the long road to Oregon." However, at Ft. Laramie, we are able to resupply our wagon. Even if everything does cost twice as much as it did in Independence we are happy to have food!

Day 82 - South Pass & Cholera

After leaving Fort Laramie, our wagon company begins the steady climb into the Rocky Mountains. The land ahead looks green and lush, but we get closer to the mountains and realize that what we thought were green meadows is actually sagebrush covering an expanse of sand and poisonous alkali springs. William Henry Russell, who came this way in 1846, disagreed with others who praised the spectacular beauty of the Rocky Mountains. Instead he wrote: “It may captivate mad poets, but I swear I see nothing to admire.”

The steep climb is a great strain on our wagon’s animal team. Alongside the trailside, we see various items dropped by other wagons to lighten their loads—a rusty anvil, a sheet iron stove, even a claw-foot bathtub. We spot a man picking among these and many other abandoned items. He is collecting castoffs from other passing wagons to take back to Fort Laramie to sell. He flags down our caravan. He doesn’t look well. He is dressed in ragged buckskins, and his face is pale and thin. He asks our caravan if we have any items that we would like to get rid of to lighten our load. He advises you to get the wagon as light as possible for the climb to South Pass. If our caravan wishes to give the man anything he will take it, but he has nothing to trade with us.

Will you drop anything off?

Unfortunately, this man has contracted cholera and has now exposed the wagon company to the disease. You must spin to see how many members of your wagon company will infected and die from the disease.

Day 107 – Wagon Troubles

Our caravan makes it through South Pass, but the Rocky Mountains prove to be a challenge for our wagons. At times, the trail takes us near breathtaking drop-offs hundreds of feet down. In addition, the rocky track makes driving the wagon a grueling and even painful experience. As our wagon bounces over the rough trail it suffers a mishap from the abuse the wagon is taking on the rough track.

If you spin.....

1 or 9 . Broken Wagon Tongue

2 or 8 . Broken Yoke of Harness

3 or 7 . Canvas Ripped 

4 or 10. Broken Spoke

5. Broken Wheel

6. Broken Linchpin

Subtracts 50 lbs from our wagon parts in your inventory. Subtract 15 lbs from bedding. Subtract 10 lbs from household supplies. Keep everything else the same.

Day 148 - Shoshones

Our caravan rolls on into the Rocky Mountains. After travelling 160 miles we reach Independence Rock. Thousands of names have been written or chiseled into this rock. Our wagon company walks over to add their names to what an 1841 missionary called “The Great Record of the Desert.”

Suddenly we hear a sound behind us and turn to see half a dozen Shoshone Indians on horseback. Carrying spears and tomahawks, they slowly approach your group. Your wagon has three options:

1.              Run to the wagon and grab your guns.

2.              Run to the wagon to try to get away.

3.              Walk up to the Shoshone and try to talk to them.

After leaving Independence Rock, our caravan begins the gentle descent into the Oregon Territory. But you are still a long way from fertile farmland of Willamette Valley.

Subtract 15 lbs from weapons and tools that were either stolen or broken in our encounter with the Shoshones.

Day 199 - Wilmette Valley & Building a Home

After nearly 200 days, we have finally arrived in the beautiful Willamette Valley and it is everything that you dreamed it would be! As a pioneer described it: “Picture an evergreen valley 150 miles long and 40 miles wide…the rich agricultural surface of the valley interspersed with timber and prairie in profitable proportions, and innumerable springs of pure, soft water.” The climate of the Willamette Valley is perfect for farming—warm summers that are not too hot and mild winters with plenty of rain.

However, with all of this bounty comes a great amount of effort on the part of the pioneers. A cabin must be built and crops planted. For in addition to planting crops that will feed our families, we will need extra to trade for those items that we either couldn’t bring with us on the trip or we left behind somewhere on the trail.

Before that hard work begins, we will celebrate completing the treacherous, lengthy, and emotionally difficult journey. Our caravan corals our wagons into a circle one last time. We have a fire, music, and dancing. We use what little food we have left to bake soda bread in the fire, a delicacy we did not have on the trail.