Life on the Overland Trails

Life on the Overland Trails

As can be imagined, the journey west along the overland trails was difficult. The earliest migrants used covered wagons, pulled usually with oxen, to carry their belongings to a new life in the West. As author White notes, "Along these trails, all migrants shared a basic technology and faced the same physical hardships."

Everyone was equal along the trail, despite money or social class. That was proved by the Donner Party, who traveled west in 1846 and became stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California during winter. The party had many wealthy members, but their wealth meant nothing against the elements and the rigors of the trail.

There were many dangers along the trails, and about three percent of those who traveled the trails died along the way. Accidents such as gunshot wounds or falling from the wagon could occur, but the most deaths were caused by disease. White continues, "Diphtheria was nearly endemic on the trail and killed many children, but the major killer was cholera."

Interestingly, while most romanticized western films portray migrants under constant Indian attacks, in reality, these attacks were responsible for relatively few deaths along the trails. Natural causes were much more costly than Indian attacks. Many of the families walked beside their wagons rather than riding inside them, and they camped out along the trail, cooking their meals in the open, no matter the weather.

When the oxen could not find feed or the loads grew too heavy, migrants would abandon their belongings alongside the trail. White notes, "In one 40-miles stretch of the Nevada desert in 1850, a migrant counted 2,000 abandoned wagons. The oxen pulling them had died or given out."

The migrants had to have feed for their animals along the way, and water to drink. Some areas of the trail passed through desert, (such as the 40-mile Desert in Northern Nevada), where none of these were available, and that was another hardship for the people. They also had to carry enough food for the journey, although they could hunt along the way if they found game.

Men tended to the animals and wagons, while the women had to cook three meals a day, collected fuel, and cleaned up afterward. They also had to ration food if they began to run low, because there were few if any places along the trail to restock supplies. They had to wash clothes, and do most of their other chores along the trail, and the men rarely helped with the work. They also had to care for the children, although older children sometimes helped with this chore. The men had time to socialize with other men, but the women had little time to themselves along the trail.