On the Oregon Trail

Have you ever had to move to a new city or a new state?
How long did it take you to travel from your old home to your new one?
How did you make the trip? Car? Truck? Plane?

When the Bown family moved to Boise, Idaho, from Waterloo, Iowa, they traveled for many weeks on the Oregon Trail. They had to carry their belongings in their wagon. Following behind were their cows and horses. Every morning, the cows had to be milked. Every night, the wagon had to be emptied, so the family could cook dinner and sleep. Of course, the cows had to be milked at night, too.

The Bowns decided to settle in Boise instead of going on to western Oregon. They took a piece of ground beside the Oregon Trail a few miles from Boise, and built the stone house we now call the Bown House. The Bown's could look out at the Oregon Trail from their front door.

What was the Oregon Trail?
It was a wagon trail that began at Independence, Missouri, and stretched 2,020 miles to Oregon City, Oregon. Between 1840 and 1860, more than 64,500 people came west along the Oregon Trail, mainly in covered wagons. Fewer people used the trail in the years afterward.

The wagon trains crawled over the trail at about two miles an hour. You can walk faster than that. In dry weather, the air was filled with dust from wheels and many hoofs. In wet weather, the trail was a river of mud. Wagons got stuck in the mud, and other wagons would stop and pull them out. Wagons often broke down, and some were lost in rivers. Feed and water for animals was scarce in many places, and many animals got sick and died.

In spite of these and other hardships, the trip west was a great adventure. Most immigrants arrived safely and settled new farms and towns, not only in Oregon, but also in Idaho and other western states. Their long journey west was an adventure they could never forget.

	The picture at the left shows a deeply rutted section of the Oregon Trail as it appeared in 1900. Today very little remains of the road that brought thousands of settlers west. Several sections of the Oregon Trail still exist in Idaho.
		Click on the picture above to see how the Oregon Trail near Boise appears today.

Click on the small map to see a larger map. Print the larger map. You will find some interesting tasks printed below the map. When you are finished, return to this page and click here to see a map of the Oregon Trail.

Find a partner, gather your resources, and try your hand at solving our Oregon Trail crossword puzzle. Click here.