Pioneer Life Hardships and Life

On the way west, the pioneers would have to deal with many problems physically and naturally.

They would have to deal with.... Blizzards, Indians, Prairie Fires, Rainstorms, and Wagons breaking.

Life wasn't fun and games with the pioneers. They had daily chores that they needed to get done. They would need to make candles, cook food, try and make medicine, make quilts, make soap, and tanning skins. Occasionally they would play games and toys.

Some Famous people went on the trail too like, Calamity Jane.

Animals would die frequently on the trail if there was not any proper food or drinks for them.

Indians were the biggest threat on the trails.

Animals and plants they saw on the trail

 Animals


Bison: Bison were the most seen animals on the trail. They thought these bison were buffaloes. Sometimes the pioneers would like to look at the bison trample around the lands. They were also a great a source of food.

Snakes: Pioneers came across rattlesnakes, copperheads, and many more. The pioneers were mostly scared of these snakes. They would often try to kill them when they came across them because snake bites risked death.

Prairie Dogs: When pioneers saw Prairie dogs, they would always find a lot of them. Around 100. Pioneers would usually leave them alone since they were so quick it wasn't worth wasting the ammunition at them.

Rabbits/Bunnies: Pioneers saw other furry animals. They saw a bunch of rabbits. They wouldn't really mess with them since there was so much and they were such a small food source. But if they were starving, they would shoot them. They also lived in big packs like the prairie dogs.

Coyotes: Travelers on the Oregon trail often awoke at night to howling coyotes. These large dog-like creatures would steal meat from the pioneers when they were sleeping. The pioneers would not hunt them because they were usually too dangerous to mess with.

Beavers: When pioneers came to dams, they saw beavers. Beavers would be near the water in the rocky mountain area. Pioneers left them alone. Sometimes they would watch the beavers build their dam slowly when they stop for a rest. They were very entertaining to the Pioneers.


Plants

Pine: Near the end of the the journey, they would run into evergreen forests and come across pine trees.

Prairie grass: Prairie grass was food for the oxen. This was the reason they did not use horses to pull their wagon, because horses could not eat this type of grass, and this grass was the only they could find along the trail. 

What did they bring?

List of things the brought-


Food:

Sacks of flour
Bacon
Coffee
Yeast powder
Salt
Pepper
Beans
Vinegar
Lard
Sugar
Dried apples
Rice

Everyday Kitchen Materials:

Candles
Matches
Coffee pots
Tin cup and plates
Frying pans
Butcher knives
Knives
Spoons
Forks
Bread pans


Camping things:

Tents
Water buckets
Small tin pails
Around 75 foot long rope
Axes
Nails
Hand tools
Stone


They would spend around $511 on all these things.

What was it like being a Pioneer on the Oregon trail?

Young Pioneer Children:

Pioneer children would have to help with household chores. Life on the prairie was hard. Children would stop working with household chores around age ten.

Young Pioneer children worked gathering eggs, feeding animals, and making soap and candles.

Pioneer children worked hard, but they still made time for fun.

Older Pioneer children (around age 11-17):

Older pioneer children would mostly do most of the cloth washing and laundry.

These older kids started to attend school. The younger children (9 and younger) did not go to school at the time. There were no desks in the school. Only stone slabs to write on. The school was only a one room log school.

The older children would also pull crops out in the fields.

Pioneer Women:

The pioneer women did not stop working until the sunset, they actually did MOST of the work on the trail.

Pioneer women spent their day looking after for her children, cooking, cleaning, making candles and soap, doing laundry, and helping her husband and older kids in the fields.

Most pioneer women had a large family, so they would mostly take care of her kids.

Pioneer Men:

Before the day, Pioneer men and grandfathers would take care of animals in the barn by milking cows, and cleaning up after the rest of the animals.

The men would sometimes get off track and have horse races and bet money of certain horses.

Sunday morning, the men would go to a gathering. Sort of like a church. They would discuss beliefs and things that would happen on the trail daily.

Pioneer Entertainment:

Some games they would play was "Hoops and Sticks". Hoops and Sticks was about throwing rusty metal pieces of horseshoes onto hooks. Just like the game, Horseshoes.

They would also do spelling bees, and hunt animals like foxes and deer for fun and also for survival.

They had many other games that were complicated to explain.

The Transportation:

Some transportation the Pioneers used were, Stagecoach, and the milk-wagon.


Stagecoach:

Milk-Wagon:

Fun Facts

The trail began in St. Louis
Most people walked. They had to be a baby or elderly to ride in a wagon. Sometimes girls had exceptions too.

People moved for good farmland. The land was very  new compared to the east land.

The trip brought many animals. Oxen pulled the wagons.

The Oregon trail was a pathway to the west. The very hard journey began around 1843 and it lasted for fifteen years and over 50,000 pioneers went on the trail.


If you got caught with the flu or cold, there was no hope for you. You built your own grave.

Many times, pioneers would have to  pay 100 dollars for a glass of water when they were dying of dehydration.

The Oregon trail lasted for EIGHT decades.

The Oregon trail was roughly about 2,000 Miles long.