Oregon Trail Reading Center
Directions:
1. Pick one reading to read closely
2. Read the piece 2 times if time permits.
3. Ask yourself:
4, Respond in your notebook, answering one of the questions above.
2. Read the piece 2 times if time permits.
3. Ask yourself:
- What type of document is this (a journal entry? A song? A newspaper article?)
- Who wrote it? When?
- What does this piece teach us about the time period?
- Why was it written?
- How do you think the author feels about the time period/event in consideration?
- If there was a debate about this topic, what position might the author take?
4, Respond in your notebook, answering one of the questions above.
Diary of Abigail Jane Scott, traveling on the Oregon Trail, 1852
July, 16: “ . . . We traveled through the Bear River Valley in the forenoon: This valley is one of great beauty being covered with good grass with mountains behind, before and on either side in plain view with groves of fir trees noding at their top; (and spots of snow visible in many places) This (valley) is tolerably fertile and looks as if itmight be well adapted to raising wheat; At half past two o’ clock we came to two toll bridges build across a stream known as Thomas’s fork of the Bear River; They charges us one dollar per wagon for crossing the two bridges.
During the afternoon our road was over the mountains and were quite slippery in consequence of light showers which fell at intervals during the day. We encamped near the Bear River and find good grass. The mosquitoes are troublesome in the extreme: passed four graves.”
July 17: We came twenty two miles, traveling all day in the Bear River valley. The valley and mountains are covered with grass and the summits of the latter are adorned with splendid groves of fir making the scenery beautiful. We passed a (small) stream every few miles. The water runs very swiftly and is perfectly clear and very cold with a pleasant taste. A horse ran away today causing a train ahead of us to stampede.”
– Covered Wagon Women: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1852. THE OREGON TRAIL
During the afternoon our road was over the mountains and were quite slippery in consequence of light showers which fell at intervals during the day. We encamped near the Bear River and find good grass. The mosquitoes are troublesome in the extreme: passed four graves.”
July 17: We came twenty two miles, traveling all day in the Bear River valley. The valley and mountains are covered with grass and the summits of the latter are adorned with splendid groves of fir making the scenery beautiful. We passed a (small) stream every few miles. The water runs very swiftly and is perfectly clear and very cold with a pleasant taste. A horse ran away today causing a train ahead of us to stampede.”
– Covered Wagon Women: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1852. THE OREGON TRAIL
Diary of Sarah Raymond
In 1865, a young woman named Sarah Raymond traveled across the Great Plains by wagon train with her family. She kept a diary of their eventful journey. In this excerpt, she describes the thick dust along a portion of the trail.
Wednesday, July 26
. . . I did not awake this morning until everything was ready for a very early start. Mother had kept my breakfast warm by keeping the stove until the last minute. I sat in the wagon and ate my breakfast after the train had started. When through, I climbed out and went to see how Neelie [Sarah's friend] was. I found her feverish and restless; her symptoms unfavorable.
Oh, the dust, the dust; it is terrible. I have never seen it half as bad; it seems to be almost knee-deep in places. We came twenty miles without stopping, and then camped for the night. We are near a fine spring of most excellent water—Barrel Spring it is called. I do not know why; there are no barrels there. When we stopped, the boys' faces were a sight; they were covered with all the dust that could stick on. One could just see the [places] where eyes, nose and mouth were through the dust; their appearance was frightful. How glad we all are to have plenty of clear cold water to wash away the dust.
From Days on the Road (1902), by Sarah Raymond Herndon.
Excerpt from the Autobiography of John Ball
John Ball (1794–1884) was a member of an 1832 expedition to the Rockies and the Pacific Northwest. His daughters used his diaries and notes from his journey to compile his autobiography years later. In the following excerpt, Ball describes the wilderness his party had to pass through and the friendly Shoshone Indians they encountered.
The first day after leaving the trappers, we traveled over a rough country of all sorts of rock, burnt and unburnt, and encamped in what is now called a canyon, between high basaltic rocks. We twelve thus for the first time alone it seemed a little lonely. And though not fearful, there was something like a deep curiosity as to the future, what might happen to us in that unknown land. Our aim was to get back on to the Lewis River and follow that to its junction with the Columbia. And I now presume we were on the headwaters of the Owyhee, the east boundary of Oregon. And the next day and for days we kept on the same or near. We pursued it till so shut in that we had to leave it by a side cut and get onto an extended plain above, a plain with little soil on the basaltic rock, and streams in the clefts or canyons. One day we traveled 30 miles and found water but once, and in the dry atmosphere our thirst became extreme.
On approaching the canyon we could see the stream meandering along the narrow gorge 1,000 feet down, and on and on we traveled not knowing that we should survive even to reach it to quench our thirst. Finally before night we observed horse tracks and that they seemed to thicken at a certain point and lead down the precipitous bluff where it was partially broken down. So by a most difficult descent we reached the creek, dismounted and down its banks to quench our thirst. And our horses did not wait for an invitation, but followed in quick time. The bluffs were of the burnt rock, some places looking like an oven burned brick kiln, and others porous. And laying over the next day and going a short distance down the creek, we found Indians who had our future food, dried salmon. And getting out on the other side we traveled on and when we came again to the river we found it, though now quite a stream, decidedly warm, made so by hot springs gushing in from porous bluffs. Quite a stream came in of the temperature of 100 degrees.
Shoshone Indians
The creek finally comes out of the ravine into a better looking country, and here we met other Indians. They call themselves Shoshones and seemed very friendly and sold us their salmon for such of our goods as they seemed most to need—awls of iron to prick their deer skins for sewing into garments, and knives, for they hardly possessed an article of our manufacture. They used a sharp bone for an awl, one flattened for a chisel, stone knives and hatchets. Ourselves and all we had seemed to them great curiosities. For their country being poor in furs it had not been visited by traders.
In some ten or twelve days after leaving the trappers, we reached the mouth of the creek where it joins the Lewis River. And here we found a large encampment of Indians, being a favorable site for fishing. The first thing on arriving the chief, in their usual hospitable manner, sent us a fine salmon for our dinner, and would have deemed it an insult to be offered pay for it. We were strangers and his guests.
Autobiography of John Ball, chap. 5 (Michigan: Dean-Hicks Company, 1925).
The first day after leaving the trappers, we traveled over a rough country of all sorts of rock, burnt and unburnt, and encamped in what is now called a canyon, between high basaltic rocks. We twelve thus for the first time alone it seemed a little lonely. And though not fearful, there was something like a deep curiosity as to the future, what might happen to us in that unknown land. Our aim was to get back on to the Lewis River and follow that to its junction with the Columbia. And I now presume we were on the headwaters of the Owyhee, the east boundary of Oregon. And the next day and for days we kept on the same or near. We pursued it till so shut in that we had to leave it by a side cut and get onto an extended plain above, a plain with little soil on the basaltic rock, and streams in the clefts or canyons. One day we traveled 30 miles and found water but once, and in the dry atmosphere our thirst became extreme.
On approaching the canyon we could see the stream meandering along the narrow gorge 1,000 feet down, and on and on we traveled not knowing that we should survive even to reach it to quench our thirst. Finally before night we observed horse tracks and that they seemed to thicken at a certain point and lead down the precipitous bluff where it was partially broken down. So by a most difficult descent we reached the creek, dismounted and down its banks to quench our thirst. And our horses did not wait for an invitation, but followed in quick time. The bluffs were of the burnt rock, some places looking like an oven burned brick kiln, and others porous. And laying over the next day and going a short distance down the creek, we found Indians who had our future food, dried salmon. And getting out on the other side we traveled on and when we came again to the river we found it, though now quite a stream, decidedly warm, made so by hot springs gushing in from porous bluffs. Quite a stream came in of the temperature of 100 degrees.
Shoshone Indians
The creek finally comes out of the ravine into a better looking country, and here we met other Indians. They call themselves Shoshones and seemed very friendly and sold us their salmon for such of our goods as they seemed most to need—awls of iron to prick their deer skins for sewing into garments, and knives, for they hardly possessed an article of our manufacture. They used a sharp bone for an awl, one flattened for a chisel, stone knives and hatchets. Ourselves and all we had seemed to them great curiosities. For their country being poor in furs it had not been visited by traders.
In some ten or twelve days after leaving the trappers, we reached the mouth of the creek where it joins the Lewis River. And here we found a large encampment of Indians, being a favorable site for fishing. The first thing on arriving the chief, in their usual hospitable manner, sent us a fine salmon for our dinner, and would have deemed it an insult to be offered pay for it. We were strangers and his guests.
Autobiography of John Ball, chap. 5 (Michigan: Dean-Hicks Company, 1925).