Viewpoints on the Oregon Trail and Westward Expansion
1 4 Jesse A Applegate Traveler on the Oregon Trail My name is Jesse Applegate Applegate My parents named me that so that people won’t confuse me with my uncle whose name is just Jesse Applegate Some folks call me Jesse A Others just call me Jess My family and I are headed west to Oregon to collect our riches Pa says My ma and pa uncles and aunts brothers and cousins are all going on the trip Our whole family is
moving out west together Up til now we’ve been Think about It Read this paragraph closely What is its main point Cite specific evidence from the text to support your answer farming right here in Missouri I like it here but Pa says it is hard to make a living as a farmer in Missouri Too many other farmers are crowding us in and we’ve got mosquitoes and diseases to worry us now too Pa says we either go west or wait around here to catch malaria or yellow fever Oregon is the land of milk and honey he says Of course there’s no going against Pa He says we’re leaving and that is that Since about 1811 it’s been mostly fur trappers and traders making their way past the Mississippi River Pa says now that it’s 1843 the trappers traders missionaries and other explorers have been coming and going back and forth long enough to prove it can be done So we loaded 5
Second Source Find an outside source that describes life along the Oregon Trail Compare the information from your source to the information here How are they alike How are they different our wagon with everything we own and joined a big group of other folks headed in the same direction There’s safety in numbers says Pa though he didn’t say what kind of danger he expected to meet We set off from Independence Missouri in May with nearly 1,000 other folks We are in what is called a wagon train The train is not really a train It’s a line of wagons Ours has hundreds of wagons oxen and cattle all in a line as far as the eye can see Pa said we had to choose the time of our leaving carefully If we left too early in the spring there would be no grass yet for the livestock once we reached the plains If we left too late we might get caught in winter storms in the mountains Pa seems awful sure about this I’ve got no choice but to go along and trust him 6
Thousands of wagons making their way along the Oregon Trail wore ruts into the earth Many ruts are still visible today 7
