USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -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.

Detailed explanation-2: -Obstacles included accidental discharge of firearms, falling off mules or horses, drowning in river crossings, and disease. After entering the mountains, the trail also became much more difficult, with steep ascents and descents over rocky terrain. The pioneers risked injury from overturned and runaway wagons.

Detailed explanation-3: -The route of the Oregon Trail was littered with cast off belongings as families struggled to lighten the load and save the health of their draft animals. The most dreaded danger was cholera. It could spread rapidly among wagon trains.

Detailed explanation-4: -The hardships of weather, limited diet, and exhaustion made travelers very vulnerable to infectious diseases such as cholera, flu, dysentery, measles, mumps, tuberculosis, and typhoid fever which could spread quickly through an entire wagon camp.