Women of the Frontier: 16 Tales of Trailblazing Homesteaders, Entrepreneurs, and Rabble-Rousers

Women of the Frontier: 16 Tales of Trailblazing Homesteaders, Entrepreneurs, and Rabble-Rousers — page 9
baking soda cornmeal and vinegar Buying wagons and ox teams and then outfitting the whole project cost between 600 and 1 000 Travelers also needed ready cash to buy supplies along the way pay ferry costs across rivers and help establish their new homes Seeking the promised lands of the West proved too costly for the nation's poor Across the Wide Missouri Families traveled from their homes in Eastern states to perch on the edge of civilization in Missouri River towns near the head of the Oregon Trail More than 350 000 pioneers eventually traveled this main artery west between 1843 and the late 1860s In places like Independence and Saint Joseph Missouri and Coun cil Bluffs Iowa passing emigrants snatched up last minute supplies repaired wagons and sought advice Families and solo travelers banded together into larger groups for protection on the trail The first leg of the Oregon Trail followed the meandering Platte River toward the Rocky Moun tains Oxen plodded over the plains slowing climb ing to South Pass in Wyoming Territory and the Continental Divide the boundary between eastward and westward flowing waters Beyond the Rockies the trail forked into two routes one continuing northward along the Snake River in Oregon Country Idaho today the other offshoot following the Back to page 322 Page 17