From 1841 to 1867, nearly 350,000 North Americans emigrated to the Pacific coast along the western wagon road known as the Overland Trail. Emigrating families came from other towns, cities, and farms in the Midwest and upper South as dreams of fortune lured wagons into new lands in hopes of making better market prospects and a steadily expanding economy. Some families travelled in groups and the average trip was about six months and two thousand miles of hardship as they faced disastrous conditions such as scorching deserts, boggy salt flats, and rugged mountains. However, some circumstances such as the cholera scare in 1852, forced families to reconsider and turn back. Along the way, women and children made essential contributions to family income and subsistence. It was common for the husband and father to introduce the idea of going west and made the final decision as well carrying out tasks throughout the journey while women took care of the typical “house work.” Eventually, women often helped drive the wagons and livestock when it came to such crises, which generated equity in work. It was only such severe afflictions that forced men to take on traditionally female chores. By mid-journey, most women worked on male tasks such as gathering buffalo chips for fuel. While women did men’s work, there was little evidence that men reciprocated. In some cases, a woman was no longer a housewife or a “domestic ornament,” but a laborer in the male arena. All in all, the significance of the migration of women helped solve the problem of labor scarcity throughout the history of the continental frontier. In breaking down sexual segregation, the Trail offered women the opportunities of socially essential work. Their responses to the labor demands indicated that “womanliness” had penetrated the values, expectations, and personalities of Midwestern farm women as well as New