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Parkography

On the Oregon Trail

Parkography

RV Miles Network

Nature, Society & Culture, History, Society & Culture:places & Travel, Science, Places & Travel

4.8911 Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2019

⏱️ 17 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The first covered wagons would carve a trail towards Oregon Country in 1836. Among them was a missionary party headed by Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. Narcissa kept a journal at the suggestion of her mother, whom she would never see again. In it, she writes to her family of life on the trail, of the oppressive heat, the difficult terrain, the joys, and her faith. On this episode of the America's National Parks Podcast, the Whitman National Historic Site and our slightly edited version of the August 1836 journal entries from a woman who would hold many "firsts" as she made her way on foot towards the Pacific Northwest.

Transcript

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0:44.0

This moment outdoors is brought to you by L.L. Bean, official partner of the National Park Foundation for the Find Your Park Movement. I'm going to C. Oh, it's. Oh, it. Oh, no.

0:45.0

Oh, no.

0:47.0

Go.

0:50.0

Go.

0:51.0

Go. If you're of a particular generation, you're likely to remember the Oregon Trail video game.

1:08.0

Long before kids were Master Minecraft builders or zipping around corners and Mario Kart, they were leaders, guiding settlers

1:16.2

as they traveled from Independence, Missouri to Oregon's Wilmet Valley.

1:21.1

The road was tough and you had to make life altering decisions, decisions that

1:26.7

would lead to the success of the party, or would lead to dysentery.

1:31.6

No one wanted to die of dysentery.

1:33.0

But for the real life 19th century pioneers,

1:40.0

the adventure was anything but a video game.

1:44.0

If you listen to our two-part series on the Lewis and Clark expedition,

1:48.0

then you know that America was longing for an easy route to the Pacific Northwest, and while Lewis and Clark were able to find a passage, it wasn't a realistic one for families and covered wagons. Another route was required.

2:01.0

Enter Robert Stewart of the historians, part of a group of fur traders who

2:06.0

established Fort Astoria on the Columbia River in Western Oregon. Stuart became the first

2:11.6

white man to use what would become known as the Oregon Trail in 1810.

2:16.0

The 2,000 mile journey from Fort Astoria to St. Louis took 10 months to complete,

2:21.5

which admittedly was still a decent chunk of time, yet it was less rugged

2:25.2

than Lewis and Clark's route, and it was accessible to covered wagons.

2:29.4

It was a game changer.

2:32.4

The white man saw this land as wild and untamed, a collection of resources to be claimed and

...

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