The Oregon Trail and the Donner Party
- Created by: cassiarh01
- Created on: 17-04-18 16:49
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- The Oregon Trail and the Donner Party
- The journey west
- 3200km long
- Migrants needed to complete the journey by the winter
- Crossing the Plains - v dangerous; sandstorms, quicksand, extreme heat, storms, disease, stampeding buffalo & lack of supplies
- Migrants began the trail in April - enough grass for their animals
- Needed to bring enough food for the journey
- Early migrants used explorers/Indians as guides; later they relied on booklets/maps
- Each trail crossed 2 mountain ranges - Rockies & Sierra Nevada
- Steep, no where to hunt and weather could be bad
- The Donner Party
- led by Jacob & George Donner
- Left Missouri for California in May 1846 with 60 wagons and 300 ppl
- Wagon train - well equipped - but had more women, children and elderly ppl than normal
- At Fort Bridger 80 people tried to make a short cut
- 300 cattle dies and one man killed another
- Arrived late in the Sierra Nevada mountains and were trapped by heavy snow
- A group was sent for help but took 32 days to reach Johnson's Ranch
- To survive, both groups ate their dead.
- Rescue parties found them in January 1847
- led by Jacob & George Donner
- The journey west
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