USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Disease. Emigrants feared death from a variety of causes along the trail: lack of food or water; Indian attacks; accidents, or rattlesnake bites were a few. However, the number one killer, by a wide margin, was disease. The most dangerous diseases were those spread by poor sanitary conditions and personal contact.

Detailed explanation-2: -Dysentery, smallpox, measles, mumps, and influenza were among the diseases named in diaries and journals, but cholera, mountain fever, and scurvy were probably the biggest killers.

Detailed explanation-3: -Three deadly diseases featured in The Oregon Trail – typhoid fever, cholera and dysentery– were caused by poor sanitation.

Detailed explanation-4: -Diseases and serious illnesses caused the deaths of nine out of ten pioneers. Such diseases as cholera, small pox, flu, measles, mumps, tuberculosis could spread quickly through an entire wagon camp. Cholera was the main scourge of the trail.

Detailed explanation-5: -But perhaps its most lasting lesson was the varied and exotic ways that your players could get sick. There were snakebites and coughs, broken arms, exhaustion, and infections. Those who played the game became familiar with the many ways travelers along that historic route got sick-and died.