USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Contrary to popular belief, most of the wagons that journeyed the Oregon Trail were prairie schooners and not larger, heavier Conestoga wagons.

Detailed explanation-2: -Oxen were most often used for pulling this type of wagon. It required two yoke (pairs) of oxen. A spare yoke often trailed behind so that the livestock could be rotated and rested. For those who preferred mules, an equivalent number of harnessed mules could have been used in place of oxen.

Detailed explanation-3: -Overwhelmingly, the journey was made by wagons drawn by teams of draft animals. Some people did not have wagons and rode horseback, while others went west with handcarts, animal carts, or even the occasional carriage.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Oregon Trail was a wagon road stretching 2170 miles from Missouri to Oregon’s Willamette Valley. It was not a road in any modern sense, only parallel ruts leading across endless prairie, sagebrush desert, and mountains.

Detailed explanation-5: -In what was dubbed “The Great Migration of 1843” or the “Wagon Train of 1843", an estimated 700 to 1, 000 emigrants left for Oregon. They were led initially by John Gantt, a former U.S. Army Captain and fur trader who was contracted to guide the train to Fort Hall for $1 per person.