Oregon+Trail+SM


 * //Questions for group--SM

http://www.endoftheoregontrail.org/faq.html

INFO- 49ers' on the Oregon Trail-//**

The term 49ers devrives from 1849, the California Gold Rush and it is used to describe the gold prospectors that came to California during the Gold Rush. -Most 49ers from the midwest and east traveled west on the Oregon Trail. They traveld by covered wagons pulled by oxen or mules, some rode horses. Many 49ers were from cities like Boston or New York. They never camped outdoors, built fires, or hunted food. -Many gold seekers were attacked by native americans. Deaises was the biggest killers. Near the end of the journey, 49ers rossed the Forty Mile Desert, a hot and dry wasteland between the Humboldt and Carson Rivers. Some bought enough water to last the way across, those who didn't died. -Iof they have survived the Oregon Trail journey, they would have made it to California to search for gold.


 * //Role of the British-//**

Mostly, they were trapping beavers. Fur was worth big money to the British because of a fad among the wealthy for beaver top hats, and through the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, the British fielded a small army of French Canadian and half-Indian trappers. There were so many skilled trappers that they could quickly "trap out" entire valleys, forcing them to push farther and farther afield to find the furs they needed to make a living. After conflicts over territory turned violent in the 1810s, the British government restored the peace in 1821 by allowing the Hudson's Bay Company to take over the North West Company. The NWC had arrived in the Oregon Country as far back as 1807, so the Hudson's Bay Company inherited its forts there in 1821. By the 1840s, when the Oregon Trail came into use, the beaver were mostly trapped out and the HBC was shifting its goals to settling the prairies in the Willamette Valley and around Puget Sound. Most of the British settlers were former trappers who had married Indian women and decided to settle down in Oregon, and they were soon outnumbered by Americans. For a short time, the British Empire thought about going to war against the United States over the question of who ruled the Oregon Country. They even sent spies into Oregon to scout the land for the army and find out if the settlers would raise a militia. The spies reported that the terrain would make for hard marching and the American settlers were not only patriotic enough to resist a British invasion, but they had enough guns to put up a real fight, as well. That was the end of any talk about another war.


 * //Importance of the Oregon Trail-//**

Some people like the freedom of the trail, others went to find new land. Some went to find new opportunities since it was hard back then. It had good forestation, ancient trees, and not very much desease until people starting going on it more often. This made the Oregon Country even more attractive, since epidemics were common in the East and little was known about the causes of disease and infection. The idea of allowing such valuable land to fall into the hands of the British inspired patriotic Americans to head for Oregon, and gold strikes in southern and eastern Oregon during the 1850s inspired other sorts of Americans


 * //Indian Hostilities-//**

Some of them, yes -- very angry. The Pacific Northwest had its share of theft, violence, and massacres as Europeans and Americans arrived and took control of the land from the Indians. However, most of the Indians in the Oregon Country welcomed the white settlers. Their experience with British and American traders led them to see the settlers as a new source of wealth, as tribes which traded with whites became rich and powerful compared with their neighbors. When American settlers began arriving, Indians often guided them through the mountains or let them stake a claim on tribal lands in exchange for gunpowder, food, clothes, or horses. Unfortunately, the traders and settlers also brought new diseases to the Indians, diseases like smallpox and measles which killed whole tribes. A single sick sailor on a trading ship killed almost the entire 800-member Multnomah tribe, and by the mid-1840s the Willamette Valley had been largely cleared of Indians not by fighting, but by plagues.