We stepped back in time today…at the Oregon/California Trail Center.
We are in 1852 and about to depart for the Oregon Territory from Independence Missouri. This is our first meeting with our Wagon Master.
He is walking us bunch of tender feet through the purchase of the necessary supplies and equipment to make the trip in one piece. He took us through the blacksmith shop and the mercantile and pointed out the supplies and gave us his recommendations. It’ll cost us $850 (in a time when $15 a month was top wages for a man) This is for a strong wagon, Draft animals preferably oxen Four ( six is better) Clothing (two sets) tent and bedding, tools, leather, nails, candles, pots, pans, cups, plates, utensils, tubs, buckets, rope, axe, whetstone, plow, hand tools, milk cow, chickens, axle grease, shotgun, rifle,
The foodstuffs are the same for everyone… 200lbs each of flour, beans and rice, Then also vinegar, coffee, saleratus (baking soda) bacon, sugar, salt, pepper, Yeast powder, hardtack, beans, and lard. A keg of whiskey was recommended for the “washing of wounds”. That leaves us exactly 25lbs of extra weight to use for personal items.
Unless we are sick, we are going to walk beside the wagon to lessen the weight. Dysentery and Cholera will be our main health problems on the trail (dysentery…we live, Cholera…we die!)
We rode in a wagon for a bit and when we got stuck we got out and met a family out on the trail. They told us of their joys and hardships. We sang songs by the campfire and I actually learned to start a fire with flint and steel!! I lost myself in this “adventure of the mind.”