Oregon+Trail+MLU09

Finished Script for Pecha-Kucha:

At first, when my dad told me we were going to be moving to Oregon, I was so scared. He was a trapper and knew he could make a better living there, but I was not ready to leave the comfort of our home and take the 2000 mile long journey on the Oregon Trail. We would have to deal with many trials along the way. We would encounter Indians, buffalo, and not to mention diseases that would take the lives of many innocent travelers.
 * 1 Mallorie- Beginnings:**

2- But there were also many rewards, such as free land, rich soil, and a lesser population. My dad assured me that these rewards would outweigh the hardships, that we would have a better life there. And as much as I wanted desperately to believe him, mostly I just hoped we wouldn’t lose our lives before we got a chance to have better ones.

Before the Oregon Trail was established, people went to Oregon on ships rather than on foot. We thought of taking the sea route, but it was far too expensive, and besides we were far from any seaport. Also the sea route was a much longer journey. Going by boat could take a whole year, while the journey would take only 4-6 months by wagon.
 * 3 Alex- The Route West:**

Before we set out, we had to make sure we were prepared for the long road ahead of us. We were told we needed enough food and supplies to get us through the 4-6 month long journey, as well as farming and building supplies to help us get started once we arrived in Oregon. So we gathered all our money together to see what we could buy with it.
 * 4 Marissa- Outfitting for the Trail:**

We would need many provision to sustain us throughout our long journey on the Oregon Trail. We used up most of the money we’d been saving to buy the food and supplies we needed; a cooking pot, a rifle, an axe, salt, flour, sugar, bacon, coffee beans, lard, spices, dried fruit, beans, rice, a keg of pickles, etc. We also got some camphor in case of a cold, and enough ingredients to make cough syrup. **6 Alex- Covered Wagon:** We also needed a covered wagon to hold all our goods. We used up the last of our money to buy a nice wagon with a frame of sturdy hickory bows and a waterproof canvas over the top. It could hold a weight of one and a half tons, but we didn’t push our luck. We also needed to buy a toolbox, a brake lever and a water bucket to put on either side of it, and of course, a team of oxen. **7 Mallorie-** **Jumping off:** Starting in our hometown of Independence, Missouri, we set out on the long treacherous journey. We loaded our wagon onto a steamship on the Missouri River, but had to unload pretty soon in one of the nearby towns. Dad said that this was called “jumping off”. We had to go on foot from there.
 * 5 Marissa- Provisions:**

During the day, mom and I walked while Dad drove the wagon. At night we had to camp out and it wasn’t fun. Sometimes we wouldn’t have enough wood to keep a fire going, and it got really cold. Also, there wasn’t always good grass for the animals to graze in. It was hard to live like that, but we toughed it out.
 * 8 Mallorie- Across the plains:**

9- I was worried about encountering Native Americans on our journey, but when we did meet them, I was relieved to find that there was nothing to fear. They were quite friendly, and would sometimes offer horses or food in exchange for clothes, or tobacco, or rifles. However, there were other things to fear, like accidental deaths on the trail. Sometimes a wagon would tip over and kill people, usually children.

Every once and a while, we would encounter a herd of buffalo. There were more buffalo than you can imagine. They went on as far as the eye could see. Some men would hunt the buffalo for fun, and then leave the carcasses to rot. Dad didn’t do it though. He said he thought it was cruel to hunt the buffalo for sport.
 * 10 Mallorie- Buffalo:**

Other than the occasional Buffalo crossing or Native American encounter, each day was pretty much the same routine. We would rise before dawn, and head out around seven o’clock. At noon, we would stop for lunch. Then we would keep walking until five or so in the afternoon, when we would circle the wagons for the evening. After dinner, I would do my studies, play with some of the other children, and sit around the campfire listening to stories. And then the next day it started all over.
 * 11 Mallorie- Every day life:**

Camping was hard, especially with our limited resources. In the morning we would eat whatever breakfast Mom could conjure up, then we’d repack and hit the road. Mom would make our lunch that morning, so we could eat fast and cover more ground. At night we would circle the wagons, giving the livestock room to run loose. The hardest part about camping was finding fuel for the fire, and sometimes we’d have to resort to using buffalo dung.
 * 12 Mallorie- Camping:**

One day I was driving the wagon when I heard a scream. I stopped the wagon and turned to see that a wagon behind us had stopped and there was a boy on the ground holding his foot. I ran over to help him. By then all the wagons had stopped. The boy’s foot had been crushed by the wheel of the wagon. We called a surgeon over and the boy ended up being all right, but it gave us all quite a scare. Many others had died getting run over by a wagon.
 * 13 Alex- Hardships:**

We finally reached Fort Laramie, which was originally owned by a fur trader in 1835. We were a third of the way there. There was a post trader’s store and a supply station, but the prices were too high, so we couldn’t buy anything. Since the fort trader wasn’t buying we had to dump some of our furniture on the side of the road to lighten the load on our wagon. We met a boy who’s dad had died of Cholera and they had to leave his body by the side of the road. Now they were turning around and going back home.
 * 14 Marissa- Through the Mountains:** (FAST)

We met some Mormons who were moving west because they wanted to find a place where they could practice their religion in peace. They told us about some of the support facilities and ferries their friends had set up to improve the trail. We left the main trail and took an alternate route that I thought would save us about three days. The Sublette cutoff was so deserted and dry that the wooden wheels on our wagon began to shrink and sometimes the iron tires that held the wheels together loosened or rolled off. Water was hard to find while on the trail. When we had been in the mountains we could find water in springs, the dry beds of streams or in holes in the rocks. Sometimes we had to dig a well in order to get water. Other times, when it had rained, I would hang a cloth by the four corners, put a weight in the middle, and then put a bucket underneath, so the rain would run toward that one point and the bucket would catch it. There was no rain now, and it was even harder to find water in the dry weather.
 * 15 Alex:** (FAST)
 * 16 Marissa- Water:**

Lots of people on the trail had been getting sick, and some even dying, but it all seemed so far away since it never affected me directly. That changed when my best friend got sick with Cholera. I had seen him and he had been perfectly well just that morning, but when I went to go see him that night, there was a doctor there with him, and he looked horrible. The doctor told me I shouldn’t see him, so I went back to where my parents were camped. The next morning my friend was dead. That’s when I realized how real all this really was.
 * 17 Mallorie- Doctors and Disease:**

After my friend’s sudden death, my mom was really over protective. She would make me take cough syrup if I cleared my throat, and she’d make me drink the camphor if I shivered the slightest bit. She gave me extra blankets to keep warm and watched over me every second of every day. It worked though, and I never once got sick.
 * 18 Mallorie- Medicine:**

We finally made it to Oregon, but it turns out the British cornered the market on fur trading through the British Hudson Bay Company. This made it basically impossible for my dad to profit from trapping and fur trading. Like many others, he had to find a new way to earn a living. He cursed himself for not searching for gold like the 49ers when he had the chance.
 * 19 Mallorie- Arrival At Oregon:**

20- I was sad to hear about the Grattan Massacre which started all because the Sioux ate a cow that had wandered into their territory from an emigrant wagon train, and Lt. Grattan and his men killed the chief and many of his tribe. My teacher says the Oregon Trail is as important to American heritage as the revolutionary war. The Oregon Trail brought the settlers from the East to the West. It is likely that California, Arizona, and New Mexico would still be part of Mexico had the trail never been established.