What were the advantages and disadvantages of Travelling west by wagon train?
1 Pro: Established Route. The biggest pro in favor of taking the Oregon Trail was that it was an established route with many other pioneers taking it.
How much did the overland route cost during the Gold Rush?
The downfall of traveling on “Overland” was that the travelers often faced rivers, food shortages, and Indian attacks. This route cost around four hundred dollars to travel, as well.
What was the safest route to California during the Gold Rush?
Still, the Cape Horn route was probably the safest of all the routes to the gold fields. Thousands of men made the trip successfully. But even after their 15,000 mile journey, forty-niners arrived in California with no guarantee of success.
What was the best route for the Gold Rush?
There were a number of routes to take to California. Chinese miners sailed across the Pacific Ocean, spending up to two months making the trip in small boats. The three main routes used by American gold seekers were the Oregon -California Trail, the Cape Horn route, and the Panama shortcut.
What were the main weaknesses of the Oregon Trail?
Major threats to pioneer life and limb came from accidents, exhaustion, and disease. Crossing rivers were probably the most dangerous thing pioneers did. Swollen rivers could tip over and drown both people and oxen. Such accidents could cause the loss of life and most or all of valuable supplies.
What was a consequence of the Oregon Trail?
Dangers on the Oregon Trail According to the Oregon California Trails Association, almost one in ten who embarked on the trail didn’t survive. Most people died of diseases such as dysentery, cholera, smallpox or flu, or in accidents caused by inexperience, exhaustion and carelessness.
What challenges did miners face during the California Gold Rush?
As the Eastern United States met the West in the months and years following the 1848 gold discovery at Sutter’s Mill, California’s shores and gold-filled hills became riddled with problems the eager prospectors might have thought they had left behind: racial tension, concern over rainfall, economic disparities between …
What problems did forty-niners face in the California gold fields?
Forty-niners rushed to California with visions of gilded promise, but they discovered a harsh reality. Life in the gold fields exposed the miner to loneliness and homesickness, isolation and physical danger, bad food and illness, and even death. More than anything, mining was hard work.
Why did the Overland Trail move to the cut-off Route?
Because of the increased frequency of Native American attacks following the Sand Creek Massacre on November 29, 1864, on December 2 Colonel John M. Chivington ordered that traffic along the Overland Trail move to the “Cut-off Route.”
When was the Overland Trail used?
While portions of the route had been used by explorers and trappers since the 1820s, the Overland Trail was most heavily used in the 1860s as a route alternative to the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails through central Wyoming.
What are the pros and cons of jeep trail trips?
The better known a trail is, the more likely it is that you will run across other people. We often spend days traveling more than a hundred miles on little-known Jeep trails without every seeing another person. There are times when we feel like we are the only people alive on the planet. Con #2: Solitude has its downside.
Where does the Overland Trail go in Colorado?
Interstate 76 follows the South Platte River to Fort Morgan, Colorado, and U.S. Route 34 goes between Fort Morgan and Greeley. North of Fort Collins, U.S. Route 287 follows the path of the Overland Trail north to Laramie.