The Oregon Trail ("The Trail of Dreams")
The above video is a short documentary on the Oregon Trail and Oregon Country in general.
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LEQ: How did the Oregon Trail transform the nation?
In 1819, Oregon Country was claimed by four countries: Great Britain, United States of America, Russia, and Spain. However, Russia and Spain later dropped out. The United States' claim to the Oregon Country came from the Lewis and Clark expedition. The U.S. presidential candidate at the time, Polk, wanted to claim the full Oregon Country territory, even though Great Britain still had claims to the land at-hand. He won the presidential election and still wasn't sure about going all out in order to claim the land from Great Britain, Congress and other citizens as well agreed with him, in addition, some didn't. Congress ended up compromising with the Oregon Treaty, most of the South and East of the U.S. agreed with it, being there "no reason to go to war over worse than useless territory". Great Britain agreed with this treaty. In 1824, a man by the name of Jedediah Smith found a new route, which would have been more efficient than the one Lewis and Clark originally found on their expedition, now commonly referred to as the Oregon Trail. A lot of propaganda promoting the Oregon Trail was put out at this time, and by the time it took place, about 1,000 pioneers in 1843 were packing their wagons and setting up for the trail. Later on in 1834, the Oregon Trail started. Usually, the emigrants traveling to Oregon walked up until a certain point, where they bought Conestoga wagons from a vendor, in addition to other goods. These wagons are also nicknamed "prairie scooner"s, based on the fact that they look like scooners (a type of boat) grazing the grassland prairies from a distance. These wagons would be 4 x 10 feet, and normally only the really young and old would stay in the wagon, where as everyone else would walk and pull the wagon. Oxen or horses would also be used to pull the wagon. The journey was 6 months long and took approximately six months. Some emigrants got tired or exhausted and decided to settle where they stopped, which some may say was an even more tiresome journey, because some of the land like in Kansas wouldn't be sufficient, and they would be isolated to only themselves and their family. The Oregon Trail transformed the nation because it gave us a new perspective on the Western Territory, that Lewis and Clark couldn't give us. Lewis and Clark were only going to document the specimens and such there, but never settled there. The emigrants traveling the trail, however, were the first to settle there. It was the first settlements in the West, and gave the U.S. a new lifestyle. **See sources cited on Citations page** |