That was not the case. Yes there had been an economic depression and serious financial downturn for many people but to travel the trail was not something you just casually did. It took planning and resources. Outfitting a family of four including wagon, animals, and provisions cost between $500 and $1,000. In today’s dollars that would be between $7,986 and $15,972. Emigrants often had to save one- to three-years wages to afford the trip.
These were what we would probably call upper-middle class, most of whom were landowners, typically farmers. They had become disillusioned with their places they had built in the country in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas to name a few. The once fertile bottom lands of the Midwest did not have the appeal of the wild stories of Oregon country with mild winters and bottomless top soil. They were willing to sell everything of their lives and homes they had built for a chance at some mythical sounding land in the Pacific Northwest. Lands that at the beginning of the exodus did not even belong to the United States. It was a gamble and they rolled the dice big time.
They were about to travel over 2,000 miles over the course of six months through territories that just a few years earlier had never seen the footfalls of a white man. They might as well been flying to the moon because the scope of what they were about to subject themselves was almost that extreme. Their stories are an amazing testament to the human spirit and the power of dreams.
Chapter Two will introduce you to the Parker family as they begin their journey and lay a foundation for what I like to call a "mountain man love story". I am hoping my story of the Oregon Trail will have something for everyone; action, adventure, intrigue, strife and of course love. I hope you enjoy this next installment.
As before, just click on the book cover below to read Chapter Two:
For
the most part they were farmers–family men, with wives and children–who
had a common goal of seeking a promised land of milk and honey in
far-off Oregon, about which they knew as little as they did about how to
get there. They did know that the back country of Iowa, Missouri and
Arkansas had not proved to be a shining paradise. The doldrums that
followed the depression of 1837 shriveled the value of land and the
price of crops, and malaria ravaged the bottomlands that once had
promised so much. - See more at:
http://www.historynet.com/oregon-trail#sthash.fkEv2NI5.dpuf
For
the most part they were farmers–family men, with wives and children–who
had a common goal of seeking a promised land of milk and honey in
far-off Oregon, about which they knew as little as they did about how to
get there. They did know that the back country of Iowa, Missouri and
Arkansas had not proved to be a shining paradise. The doldrums that
followed the depression of 1837 shriveled the value of land and the
price of crops, and malaria ravaged the bottomlands that once had
promised so much. - See more at:
http://www.historynet.com/oregon-trail#sthash.fkEv2NI5.dpuf
For
the most part they were farmers–family men, with wives and children–who
had a common goal of seeking a promised land of milk and honey in
far-off Oregon, about which they knew as little as they did about how to
get there. They did know that the back country of Iowa, Missouri and
Arkansas had not proved to be a shining paradise. The doldrums that
followed the depression of 1837 shriveled the value of land and the
price of crops, and malaria ravaged the bottomlands that once had
promised so much. - See more at:
http://www.historynet.com/oregon-trail#sthash.fkEv2NI5.dpuf
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