Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The monument (CHL No. 441) in Burnt Wagons, California, marking the site where the group killed their oxen and burned their wagonsThe Death Valley '49ers were a group of pioneers from the Eastern United States that endured a long and difficult journey during the late 1840s California Gold Rush to prospect in the Sutter's Fort area of the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada in California.
With these accidents, many settlers died. About 20,000 to 30,000 died on the Oregon Trail along the way in 40 years. American settlers began following the trail in 1841, with the first recorded settler wagon traingroup being the 1843 "Great Migration" of about 900 settlers, led in part by Marcus Whitman .
According to an evaluation by John Unruh, [104] a 4 percent death rate or 16,000 out of 400,000 total pioneers on all trails may have died on the trail. Reaching the Sierra Nevada before the start of the winter storms was critical for the successful completion of a trip.
The Handcart Pioneer Monument, by Torleif S. Knaphus, located on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Willie and Martin handcart companies were two companies of LDS handcart pioneers that were participating in the migration of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) to Salt Lake City, Utah and used handcarts to transport their belongings. [1]
The following timeline provides an almost day-to-day basic description of events directly associated with the 1846 Donner Party pioneers, covering the journey from Illinois to California—2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers), over the Great Plains, two mountain ranges, and the deserts of the Great Basin.
Despite a dramatic rescue effort, more than 210 of the 980 pioneers in these two companies died along the way. John Chislett, a survivor, wrote, "Many a father pulled his cart, with his little children on it, until the day preceding his death." [3]
The journey was a particularly hard one, and many of the pioneers lost their lives. Starting where the Oregon Trail leaves the Snake River Plain and heads northwest toward the Columbia River Gorge (the general route of modern Interstate 84), Meek's party intended to instead head west across the Oregon High Desert, straight to the Willamette Valley.
A pioneer's typical outfit, for three to six people, usually consisted of one or two small, ... Many animals (and people) died on this crossing. A count made in 1850 ...