USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Certain accessories and tools for making emergency repairs to a wagon were necessary to bring along. These included rope, brake chains, a wagon jack, extra axles and tongues, wheel parts, axes, saws, hammers, knives, and a sturdy shovel.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Oregon Trail was a roughly 2, 000-mile route from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon, that was used by hundreds of thousands of American pioneers in the mid-1800s to emigrate west. The trail was arduous and snaked through Missouri and present-day Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho and finally into Oregon.

Detailed explanation-3: -Converted farm wagons, called Prairie Schooners, were actually used and pulled generally not by horses, but by oxen. In fact, oxen were led. There were no reins. Plus, the Prairie Schooner wagons often had no seat and the pioneers generally walked along the Trail.

Detailed explanation-4: -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.