Many accidents happened in the beginning of the trail when the new adaptations they had to make was still new to them. Some include, being accidentally shot by people messing around with guns and unintentionally shooting them and drowning in a wagon as the overloaded wagons were forced to go through shallow rivers it was not meant to go through. However, it was mainly being run over by a wagon that brought you instant death, “A little boy fell over the front end of the wagon during our journey. In his case, the great wheels rolled over the child’s , crushing it to pieces.” a quote from Edward Lennox. Most travelers soon found out that they had overpacked and began to lighten their loads by throwing things overboard. As a result of the heavy …show more content…
Chimney rock signaled the end of the prairies and the beginning of steep and rugged trails of the Rocky Mountains. Many pioneers were starstruck with the Mountain of rock that actually looks like a chimney that they either wrote about it or drew the historical landmark. Frequently reported from the travelers, it was said that Chimney Rock was visible forty miles away from it, in 1845 General Joel Palmer said, “appearance of a haystack with a pole running far above its stop. ” Scotts Bluff is another landmark the pioneers encountered, it was located in Western Nebraska and it is said that even to this day you can still see wagon ruts there. Nebraska also had good grasslands for the horses, oxen, and mule to eat. Yet the biggest problem on the trail was beginning to become evident as travelers began dying left and right from Cholera. Some wagon trains lost up to two-thirds of their people to this quick killing disease as an emigrant could go from healthy to dead in just a few hours. Bodies were left on the side of the road abandoned to die alone or buried in shallow graves which allowed animals to dig up their remains and scatter them along the trail. There were other diseases also of course such as small pox, flu, measles, mumps and tuberculosis, but Cholera killed more emigrants than …show more content…
It is where the North Platte River, which the pioneers had been traveling alongside in order to reach the West and its landmarks, meets the Laramie River. In Nebraska the pioneers had followed the Platte River, and eventually when they arrived in Wyoming it turned into the North Platte River. The North Platte River was shallow enough to tip over people and oxen making them lose most of their valuable possessions, and had been dangerous to the pioneers as it killed hundreds when they were trying to cross it. 37 people in particular drowned in the Green River simply in the year 1850 alone. Independence Rock is the next landmark that was to be passed by the travelers, also in Wyoming. The huge rock became one of the most famous of the landmarks of the Oregon Trail. It was a favorite resting spot for the travelers along the path and was called the “Great Register of the Desert ” where more than 5,000 names were carved. Along the trail were alternate routes called “cutoffs” that were created in order to either shorten the trail or to get around difficult terrain. For example, there was a cutoff in Wyoming to get to Fort Bridger, Wyoming quicker. When the trail began in early spring the pioneers had hope to make it to Independence Rock by July 4, Independence Day, and if they had not then they knew they were behind