USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -What exactly was a wagon train? It was a group of covered wagons, usually around 100 of them. These carried people and their supplies to the West before there was a transcontinental railroad.

Detailed explanation-2: -Most wagon trains had at least 25 wagons. Perhaps the largest wagon train to travel on the Oregon Trail left Missouri in 1843 with over 100 wagons, 1, 000 men, women and children, and 5, 000 head of oxen and cattle. The train was led by a Methodist missionary named Dr. Elijah White.

Detailed explanation-3: -The wagon train was moveable community for four to six months along the trail. Each evening, the wagon encampment typically grouped into a circle, forming a temporary corral. Around the circle, tents and bedrolls provided the shelter for exhausted pioneers.

Detailed explanation-4: -In addition, most people walked, both because it allowed their wagons to carry more weight and because riding in the wagons-which had no suspension-they would have endured constant jolting and lurching on the rough trails and roads. Ox teams were not controlled with reins, and drivers walked alongside the animals.