Oregon Trail - Where Would I Be on August 15

I've always had a fascination with the history surrounding the Oregon Trail.  Emigrants gathered at Independence and formed trains, leaving around mid-April to May and if they were lucky, made it to Oregon City before winter set in.  How long was the Oregon Trail? Approximately 2,000 miles. Travelers were lucky if they could make 10 to 20 miles per day, taking into consideration, the weather, the condition of the trail and a hundred other factors that could affect their travel.  Today, August 15, I made some general calculations based on information I found, and where I imagined the emigrants would be today based on those general calculations.  If the travelers left on April 15 and made 15 miles per day, I calculated they would be at the top of the Blue Mountains in Oregon, part of the Oregon Trial.  Interestingly, Wikipedia says: In the mid-1800s, the Blue Mountains were a formidable obstacle to settlers traveling on the Oregon Trail and were often the last mountain range the emigrants crossed before passing down the Columbia River Gorge to the end of the Oregon Trail Oregon City.

Between 1840 and 1860, from 300,000 to 400,000 travelers used the 2,000-mile overland route to reach Oregon City, Puget Sound, Utah, and California destinations. The journey took up to six months, with wagons making between ten and twenty miles per day of travel. See: https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/oregon_trail/#.WZNAQLpFyUk

Life on the wagon trains was harsh. There were many hardships and challenges along the way on the Oregon Trail. Some hardships of the journey were death of relatives due to accidents, Indian attacks, supply shortages, weather, drowning, disease, terrain, and even medicine.  A challenge faced by most travelers was to steady their usage of money along the Oregon Trail.  These hardships were fatal, but not as much as  the problem of reaching and passing the mountains before winter begins. Some of these problems were not as harsh as others, but each posed a dangerous threat to them finishing their journey.http://oregontrailrus.weebly.com/hardships.html

Overlanders on the Oregon Trail, in contrast, quickly learned that Conestoga wagons were too big for their needs: the huge, heavy wagons killed even the sturdiest oxen before the journey was two-thirds complete. Their answer to the problem was dubbed the “Prairie Schooner,” a half-sized version of the Conestoga that typically measured 4′ wide and 10′ to 12′ in length. With its tongue and neck yoke attached, its length doubled to about 23 feet. With the bonnet, a Prairie Schooner stood about 10′ tall, and its wheelbase was over 5′ wide. It weighed around 1300 pounds empty and could be easily dismantled for repairs en route. Teams of 4 to 6 oxen or 6 to 10 mules were sufficient to get the sturdy little wagons to Oregon. Manufactured by the Studebaker brothers or any of a dozen other wainwrights specializing in building wagons for the overland emigrants, a Prairie Schooner in good repair offered shelter almost as good as a house. https://www.historicoregoncity.org/2016/11/28/wagons-prairie-schooners/

My time travel novel, Aimee's Locket, takes place on one of these emigrant trains to Oregon City. A modern young woman faces the trials and tribulations of the long journey.  Coming soon in audio book form.





Buy Link:  https://www.amazon.com/Aimees-Locket-P-L-Parker-ebook/dp/B002TG4NJC/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502825016&sr=8-1&keywords=aimee%27s+locket+by+p.l.+parker