When traveling the Oregon/California Trail, there was one thing that was consistent among all of the plaques and museums and books and guides…and that was how INCONSISTENT they were on the number of people who traveled the trail. Seriously. We saw numbers that ranged all the way from 100,000ish to half a million. Honestly, it was likely hard to track because even though most people call it the Oregon Trail, the truth is, it split into so many different trails and tracks, and people joined and left and died and were born and some kept diaries and some didn’t and some stayed with trains and some didn’t. Yes, I know that is a whole lot of “ands”. But it makes my point! How can you possibly track such a number?
But what they almost all DID agree on was that about 10% of people died. They actually billed that as not too bad, but if you think about it, that means that one in ten people DIED! That is A LOT!
And so today’s morbid, yet fascinating question: HOW did they die? I have an easy list for you today. Obviously, it won’t include all methods of death, but the most common. Let me know if you have questions or want more details on any of them, and I’ll gladly expand!
- Gunshot wounds: Yes, due to inexperience with weapons or just plain clumsiness, many people died by accidentally shooting themselves or others while attempting to hunt or guarding the wagons at night.
- Drowning: Typically while crossing a river, both fording and ferries.
- Snakebites: Now, this wasn’t nearly as often as I expected. In fact, many sources will tell you it was unusual to die from snakebite. But it did still happen.
- Wagons: Sadly, there were many deaths when children fell or jumped from wagons and were rolled over or trampled.
- Men: Yes, there were certainly Indian attacks, but far fewer than one would think from all the old stories. Those did increase as the years went on and the native land was encroached on more and more. But what a lot of people REALLY don’t know is that there were white men who also attacked and killed travelers, usually for their supplies or money, either by themselves or with natives.
- Illness: Easily the highest percentage of people died from disease. Dysentery, yes, but also cholera, typhoid, measles, mountain fever, etc., all made worse by exhaustion, hunger, and thirst.
And there you have the main ways to die on the Overland Trail! You’re welcome. If you want to hear Mr. Wayne’s take on it, don’t forget to subscribe to my BRAND NEW newsletter, coming out in just a couple of weeks and get entered into a giveaway in the process.
Before I sign off, here are a couple pictures from O’Fallon’s Bluff. I think it was here that I really experienced my first awe at how it must have felt to be completely alone except for the wagons and the prairie in front of you.
Resources
- Basic knowledge from years of research.
- The Bureau of Land Management. “Basic Facts About the Oregon Trail.” Accessed January 22, 2024. https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/learn_interp_nhotic_historybasics.pdf.
- OCTA. “Life and Death on the Oregon Trail – OCTA,” March 29, 2018. https://octa-trails.org/articles/life-and-death-on-the-oregon-trail/.
- “Death and Danger on the Emigrant Trails (U.S. National Park Service),” n.d. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/death-on-trails.htm.
- Maxwell, William Audley. Crossing the Plains, Days of ‘57. BoD – Books on Demand, 2020. http://books.google.ie/books?id=2Yb1DwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=crossing+the+plains+days+of+%2757&hl=&cd=1&source=gbs_api.
- Erickson, Paul. Daily Life in a Covered Wagon. Puffin Books, 1997. http://books.google.ie/books?id=ZD8lAQAAIAAJ&q=daily+life+in+a+covered+wagon&dq=daily+life+in+a+covered+wagon&hl=&cd=1&source=gbs_api.
Forest Idylls 