Heading West: Life with the Pioneers, 21 Activities
Marcus and Narcissa Whitman estab lish a Methodist mission in Oregon Country 1837 John Deere invents the steel plow which can plow the prairie sod 1843 The first wagon train goes to the Oregon Country 1846 Most of the Donner Party perish when snow catches them in the mountains 1847 Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and 12 others are massacred by Indians at their Oregon mission Brigham Young leads the Mormons from Nauvoo Illinois to Utah 1848 Gold is discovered in California starting the Gold Rush United States wins the Mexican War and receives California and the Southwest 1861 65 U S Civil War 1862 The Homestead Act gives settlers free land in the West 1863 Quantrill's Raiders lead a massacre in Lawrence Kansas killing at least 150 people 1869 Transcontinental Railroad is com pleted 1890 Chief Big Foot and 350 Lakotas are killed at the Wounded Knee Mas sacre
1893 Frederick Jackson Turner in a speech in Chicago declares the American frontier closed 1986 Homesteading ends in Alaska
Introduction Itchy Feet and Moving West ne of Laura Ingalls's earliest memories was of riding in a covered wagon That's fitting because Laura spent a lot of her early life doing that Her Pa Charles Ingalls was always dreaming of mov ing west His wife Caroline said he had an itchy foot And one of Laura's uncles said Give him a covered wagon and he's ready to go Laura didn't even remember her first trip by cov ered wagon The family had left their little house in the big woods near Pepin Wisconsin and moved west to Indian Territory in Kansas But they didn't actually plan to go to Indian Territory They planned to homestead on land the government was giving away free to farmers Yet somehow they ended up on the Osage Indian Reserve If Pa had filed a claim on the land he would have known but there was so much land and he was in a hurry to build a cabin The first covered wagon trip that Laura remem bered was the trip back to Wisconsin After being gone three years Pa got a letter from the man who had bought their house in the big woods He wanted to go west and asked Pa to take back the land and the cabin Pa and Ma decided to return It took them several
weeks to get back to the big woods Laura 4 and Mary 6 sat on the bedding and blankets in the back of the wagon and looked out over the backboard at the wagon tracks behind Ma rode up front with Pa holding baby Carrie in her arms The road stretched through the Kansas prairies to the hills of Missouri then on through Iowa The little horses Pet and Patty pulled the wagon Jack the brindle bulldog trotted along beside them It often rained on that spring trip When the thunderclouds rolled in the sky Pa stopped He pulled the canvas top over the wagon and tied it down He lowered a flap of canvas over the back and secured it Ma and baby Carrie would come back and sit on the bedding with the little girls It was cozy and dry in the wagon as long as they didn't touch the canvas Poor Pa pulled his hat down over his eyes and kept on driving through the storm In one place in Missouri a stream they needed to cross was flooded Water swirled around and branches of trees went sailing by Pa found the ford where other wagons had crossed He decided to try and led the team into the foaming water The wagon shuddered and then as they got deeper it began to float Ma drove and Pa waded across The water was so deep Laura could only see his head bobbing up and down But they made it safely across Pa decided Pet and Patty were too small to pull
