The Oregon Trail

Hardships and Landmarks

 

Overview:
- Read more of Westward to Home: Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary

- Hardships the pioneers faced

- Indians: friends or enemies?

- Landmarks
          Activity: Present a landmark

Materials:
- Westward to Home: Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary
- Whiteboard marker
- Map of the Oregon Trail-with landmarks
- Poster board
- Access to computer lab

Procedures:

Read around twenty pages in the book Westward to Home: Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary.

Hardships:

Ask the students what hardships they think the people on the Oregon Trial faced.
-Undrinkable water
-Starvation
-Run over by a wagon
-Birth of a baby
-Disease
-Guns going off
-Native Americans
-Mountains to cross
-Cholera
-Proper hygiene
-Equipment maintenance
-Buffalo stampede
-Drowning while crossing a river
-Weather
-Lack of proper shoes, clothing

 Write the hardships on the whiteboard and tell students to write them in their INB.

Inform the students that around 400,000 people made the journey across the Oregon Trail. About 30,000 of those people did not make the whole journey.
 

Native Americans:

Tell the students that even though Native Americans were one of the pioneers’ biggest worries, they did not act hostile towards them very often. There were many instances of Native American kindness: helping pull out stuck wagons, rescuing drowning emigrants, and rounding up lost cattle. 

 

Landmarks:

Pass out to each student a map of the Oregon Trail that also has landmark locations. 

Explain to the students that early explorers of this region mapped out the area using a series of landmarks to chart the path. In the early 1840s, many of the first parties of westward bound pioneers hired these explorers to guide them along the routes. As the years went on, the route became more and more clear and so it was easy to follow without landmarks. The landmarks became a way to know their journeys progress more than a guide. Even today some of the landmarks remain distinctive, while others are hard to find.

Split the students into pairs and give each group a landmark from their map. 

Give each group a poster board. Have each group gather pencils, markers, crayons and colored pencils. 

Go to the computer lab.

Have the pairs research their landmark on the website: http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/Sites.html

Their poster must have a picture or drawing of the landmark and information about the landmark.

Have the pairs present their poster. Make sure to have them present in the order that the emigrants came upon the landmarks on the Oregon Trail. 

Tell the students to write notes in the INB about the landmarks, while each group presents.

 
ESOL Accommodations: Make sure ESOL students get notes in their INB on hardships and landmarks. ESOL students will benefit from being put in a small group. Partner ESOL students will English speaking students. 

Sources:
Information: www.blm.gov/or/oregontrail/education-teachers-packets.php
Landmark Map: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wallner/_borders/Oregon%20Trail.gif