1. By Reeves Barr, Maggie Ward, Carrie Wilson, Macey Sutherland, and Mary Conly Hammons

2.  Each wagon cost approximately $400  The whole trip cost about $1000  The wagon’s travels close to 2 mph and were pulled by horses, oxen, or mule.  The average trip took up to 5-6 weeks, which was around 2000 miles.  Made of wood, water proofed canvas, and iron  The canvas was linseed with oil stretched over hooped shape slats.  Iron was sparingly used because it would weigh too much.  Only children and elders rode inside of the wagon; others walked or rode horseback.

4.  In 1840 John Bidwell established the Western Emigration Society  Planned to go from Missouri River to California  Tom Fitzpatrick lead the caravan  In 1862 the Homesteads Act was passed  The Act said that a family could settle on 160 acres and live there for five years at the end of five years they were granted the land

6.  Before the invention of steamboats, in order to get goods south, people had to send rafts or small flat boats down the Mississippi.  The boats would then be sold as fire wood unless they had a rudder they could then make the trek back upstream.  Cities were built around rivers.

7.  1787 started the steamboat era in America on the Delaware River by John Fitch.  Robert Fulton built the first successful steamboat in 1807  Robert Fulton would come to be known as the “father of steam navigation” because he was recognized for having made the steamboat a economic success.  They transported sugar, cotton, passengers, and other important cargo.  Steamboats traveled on canals that reached all over the nation to the major manufacturing and trading posts.

8. Early designs of the steamboat

9.  http://www.saveyourheritage.com/images/wagon_tr ain1862.jpg http://www.saveyourheritage.com/images/wagon_tr ain1862.jpg  http://www.lovelockmotels.com/Images/coveredwa gon.jpg http://www.lovelockmotels.com/Images/coveredwa gon.jpg  http://simplymarvelous.files.wordpress.com/2008/0 5/wagon_train-2.jpg http://simplymarvelous.files.wordpress.com/2008/0 5/wagon_train-2.jpg  http://www.cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/28 _rs_4.jpg http://www.cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/28 _rs_4.jpg  http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWwagontrai n.htm http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWwagontrai n.htm  http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blstea mship.htm http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blstea mship.htm  http://qwickstep.com/search/steamboating.html http://qwickstep.com/search/steamboating.html  http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/west wardexpansion/section5.rhtml http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/west wardexpansion/section5.rhtml