What Is The California Trail

Contents

What was the California Trail used for?

mass migration

The California Trail carried over 250 000 gold-seekers and farmers to the goldfields and rich farmlands of the Golden State during the 1840s and 1850s the greatest mass migration in American history.

Who traveled the California Trail and why?

The Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada through which the trail passed were first explored by British and American fur trappers. U.S. trapper explorer and fur trader Jedediah Smith led two expeditions into California and over the Sierra Nevada and back from 1826 to 1829.

What states did the California Trail go through?

The trail passes through the states of Missouri Kansas Nebraska Colorado Wyoming Idaho Utah Nevada Oregon and California.

Where did the California Trail go?

The California Trail went from western Missouri across the Great Plains into the Rocky Mountains to the gold fields of northern California. It was most heavily used in the 1840s 1850s and 1860s. The length of the wagon trail from the Missouri River to Sacramento California was about 1 950 miles (3 138 km).

What people traveled the California Trail?

Some of these travelers included:

Fur trappers – these mountain men had been in the hills for years and some served as guides.
Farmers – stories had spread about the fertile land of California.
Prospectors – the gold rush had many Americans dreaming of prospecting their fortunes.

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Who blazed the California Trail?

Jedediah Smith William Sublette and Jim Bridger are some of the men who mapped new areas and blazed trails throughout the Southwest West and Pacific Northwest. Many became guides on the California Trail leading wagons of hopeful emigrants to their new lives in California.

What were the dangers of the California Trail?

Shootings drownings being crushed by wagon wheels and injuries from handling domestic animals were the common killers on the trail. Wagon accidents were the most prevalent. Both children and adults sometimes fell off or under wagons and were crushed under the wheels.

Why was the Oregon California Trail important?

The California Trail was just one of a vast network of wagon roads and footpaths that brought Americans from the country they knew to the unfamiliar frontier – and eventually west to California and the Oregon Territory. This was the greatest mass migration in American history.

How many people died in the California Trail?

The number of deaths which occurred in wagon train companies traveling to California is conservatively figured as 20 000 for the entire 2 000 miles of the Oregon/California Trail or an average of ten graves per mile.

Why did Pioneers go to California?

People decided to make the journey West for a variety of reasons. Many left to find new opportunities after an economic depression in the late 1830s. After gold was discovered in California many went to seek their fortune. Some heard that California had a healthier climate and went to leave diseases back east.

What did the pioneers bring with them on the California Trail?

These would just be the basic staples. Other food stuffs could include sacks of rice and beans plus dried peaches and apples. Bacon was often hauled in large barrels packed in bran so the hot sun would not melt the fat. Each man took a rifle or shotgun and some added a pistol.

What trails did the gold rush take?

The three main routes used by American gold seekers were the Oregon -California Trail the Cape Horn route and the Panama shortcut.

Who led the first wagon train to California?

John Bartleson

John Bartleson organized the Western Emigration Society and led the first wagon train of pioneers across the Rocky Mountains. On May 1 1841 this group headed west out of Missouri. There were 69 adults with only 5 woman and a couple children. None of them including Bidwell and Bartleson had ever been to California.

What supplies were needed for the California Trail?

Generally the following minimum rations were recommended for each adult person:

120-200 pounds of flour in canvas sacks.
30 pounds of hardtack or crackers.
25-75 pounds of bacon.
15 pounds ground corn.
½ bushel cornmeal.
10-50 pounds of rice.
2 pounds of saleratus (an early form of baking soda)
10 pounds of salt.

What Rivers did the California Trail cross?

The California Trail Rivers

Platte River.
North Platte River.
Sweetwater River.
Portneuf River.
Humboldt River.
Snake River.
Raft River.

How did settlers reach California?

The first explorers and settlers of Coastal California were American Indians. The most expansive European colonizations efforts were made by the Spanish. … Spanish colonization of “Alta California” began when the Presidio at San Diego the first permanent European settlement on the Pacific Coast was established in 1769.

Which trail took you to Salt Lake City?

The Mormon Trail

The Mormon Trail extends from Nauvoo Illinois which was the principal settlement of the Latter Day Saints from 1839 to 1846 to Salt Lake City Utah which was settled by Brigham Young and his followers beginning in 1847.

What were the two main causes of death along the trail?

Nearly one in ten who set off on the Oregon Trail did not survive. The two biggest causes of death were disease and accidents.

Which three trails began at the same place?

Three of the Missouri-based routes—the Oregon Mormon and California Trails—were collectively known as the Emigrant Trails.

How long did it take to travel from New York to California by wagon?

In the early 19th century settlers could travel from 15 to 20 miles per day by covered wagon. Given the distance between New York and California is around 2 445 miles the journey would take approximately 122 to 162 days or from 4 to 5.5 months.

How did pioneers treat dysentery?

Castor oil was used to treat dysentery and other bowel disorders. Mountain fever: Usually not fatal with symptoms such as intestinal discomfort diarrhea headache skin rashes respiratory distress and fever.

Where was the starting point of the trail for most pioneers?

Independence Missouri
While the first few parties organized and departed from Elm Grove the Oregon Trail’s primary starting point was Independence Missouri or Kansas City (Missouri) on the Missouri River.

Why were bodies buried beneath the trails of the American West?

Graves were usually shallow to save labor resulting in bodies that were washed away or dragged away by animals. Suitable headstones that would withstand weather and time were a rarity. “Sometimes the grave was dug in the trail itself to conceal it from Indians ” Mr. Werner says.

What were the Oregon and California Trails?

This road also called the Oregon-California Trail was a 2 000-mile route beginning at Independence Missouri and continuing west and north to the Columbia River Valley in Oregon or west then south to the gold fields of California. Kansas was the gathering point for wagon trains.

Where did the Oregon Trail begin?

1843

How many pioneers died traveling west?

Bashore and Tolley analyzed 56 000 records of pioneers who traveled to Salt Lake City between 1847 and 1868. The researchers found 1 900 deaths during the journey or within the calendar year of arrival in Salt Lake making the overall mortality rate 3.5 percent.

How long did it take to get to California by wagon train?

The wagon train would travel at around two miles an hour. This enabled the emigrants to average ten miles a day. With good weather the 2 000 mile journey from Missouri to California and Oregon would take about five months.

Was there cannibalism on the Oregon Trail?

Some of the migrants resorted to cannibalism to survive eating the bodies of those who had succumbed to starvation sickness and extreme cold. The Donner Party departed Missouri on the Oregon Trail in the spring of 1846 behind many other pioneer families who were attempting to make the same overland trip.

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Did wagon trains really exist?

Travel by wagon train occurred primarily between the 1840s–1880s diminishing after completion of the first transcontinental railroad. Some remnants of wagon ruts along the well-travelled trails are still visible today.

Why didn’t most pioneers ride in their wagon?

People didn’t ride in the wagons often because they didn’t want to wear out their animals. Instead they walked alongside them getting just as dusty as the animals. The long journey was hard on both people and animals. It was even hard on the wagons which usually had to be repaired several times during the trip.

How far did the pioneers travel each day?

Average distance covered in a day was usually fifteen miles but on a good day twenty could be traveled. 7:30 am: Men ride ahead on horses with shovels to clear out a path if needed.

What did the pioneers eat?

The mainstays of a pioneer diet were simple fare like potatoes beans and rice hardtack (which is simply flour water 1 teaspoon each of salt and sugar then baked) soda biscuits (flour milk one t. each of carbonate of soda and salt) Johnny cakes cornbread cornmeal mush and bread.

How did pioneers keep bacon?

Marcy advised travelers to pack the pork in sacks “or… in boxes… surrounded with bran which in a great measure prevents the fat from melting away.” Unfortunately bacon still occasionally spoiled and had to be ditched along the trail. In less delicious news bacon wasn’t just cured it was a cure!

What are wagon ruts?

As the Oregon Trail evolved thousands of wagons wore ruts into the ground that acted as an ad-hoc road for the settlers who followed. … Rather wagon wheels left ruts across the country as pioneers found various shortcuts and easier routes along the way.