Objective: To examine the settlement of the Oregon Country. Do Now: Use the map below to answer the following questions. 1. What two rivers did the Oregon Trail follow as it wound into Oregon Country? Snake River and Columbia River 2. What line of latitude marked the northern boundary of the U.S. claim in the Oregon Country? 54, 40’ North 3. Why do you think the Oregon Trail often followed the course of a river? It was easier to travel by water than by land. People need water to drink, clean, and cook with.

Today, the Oregon Country includes Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and parts of Wyoming and British Columbia, Canada.

• The United States, Great Britain, Spain, and Russia all claimed Oregon. • Eventually, Spain and Russia dropped their claims, and the U.S. and Great Britain agreed to share the land.

• Attracted by open land and excellent soil, thousands of people began to travel the Oregon Trail by 1843. • Travelers had to cover 2,000 miles on foot in five months.

Those who come to this country will be in love with their oxen Those who come to this country will be in love with their oxen. The ox will plunge through mud, swim over streams, dive into thickets and he will eat almost anything." Emigrant Peter Burnett: "The ox is a most noble animal, patient, thrifty, durable, gentle and does not run off.

Emigrant John Clark: "We had to risk our lives in roping them Emigrant John Clark: "We had to risk our lives in roping them. After being kicked across the pen some half-dozen times and run over as often, we at last succeeded in leading them out. It was laughable.”

Video: Overland Trail (4:08) Emigrant Henry Cook: "What perverse brutes these mules are. The beasts! How I hate `em." Video: Overland Trail (4:08)

Wagon trails were used by the travelers, and people worked together. Examples: women prepared the food men cared for the wagons and horses Video: Life on the Trail (2:00) Emigrant Rev. Samuel Parker: "Dry bread and bacon consisted our breakfast, dinner and supper. The bacon we cooked when we could obtain wood for fire; but when nothing but green grass could be seen, we ate our bacon without cooking."

The Oregon Trail as it appeared in 1900.

The Oregon Trail near Boise, ID, as it appears today.

• People frequently traded with Native Americans. Video: Native Americans on the Trail (1:14)

Emigrant William Kilgore: "Buffalo extended the whole length of our afternoon's travel, not in hundreds, but in solid phalanx. I estimated two million." Emigrant John Wyeth: "We saw them in frightful droves as far as the eye could reach; appearing at a distance as if the ground itself was moving like a sea.“

Emigrant Isaac Foster: "The valley of the Platte for 200 miles; dotted with skeletons of buffalos; such a waste of the creatures God had made for man seems wicked, but every emigrant seems to wish to signalize himself by killing a buffalo." Slaughtered buffalo lying dead in the snow in 1872.

Slaughtered For the Hide, Harper's Weekly, 1874

Hear from the historian. Problems: • Weather; including heat in the summer, and snow in the mountains. • Sickness, especially cholera Hear from the historian. • Fatigue Nearly one out of ten people did not survive. These are graves of people that died and were buried with what their families could find.

Emigrant Agnes Stewart: "We camped at a place where a woman had been buried and the wolves dug her up.Her hair was there with a comb still in it. She had been buried too shallow. It seems a dreadful fate, but what is the difference? One cannot feel after the spirit is flown." Edward Lenox: "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 head----crushing it to pieces." Success: • Between 1840-1860, over 50,000 people reached Oregon.