Oregon Trail

I teach over 10,000 kids a year through our field trips, a bunch through virtuals, and about half of them are from states other than Wyoming.

So if you want to learn about Native Culture, Oregon Trail... you know, the mountains and the plains, go to our website because we have a ton of options.

And let me, I'm

going to share that right now.

A lot of hours, even if you are flying and a lot of phone calls.

Are they going by covered wagon? Well, Oregon Trail, right? That's been the theme this year

is Oregon Trail.

Yeah.

Oh no, someone got scurvy.

They had to stop and pay their respects along the trail.

Arden, have you ever had the pleasure of playing Oregon Trail?

It was a large majority of my education, I think fourth grade.

Mm-hmm

... until she gets to, uh, the Oregon Trail Chicago?

Nope.

Which I think might be actually what's happening, and then we'll find out who the Leighton is in the penultimate episode.

Mm-hmm

...

I, I do wanna talk about Blair, because I'm guessing that they're gonna suggest that the Blair that we see in Oregon Trail world is this Blair, which is could, possibly Wasp world Blair-

Hmm

And the hint would be video game.

Oh, the Oregon Trail.

Yeah, yeah.

I packed up a bunch of covered wagons in 1841 in Independence, Missouri, and started on the Oregon Trail.

I didn't see any while I was out in the western part of the state, but there are places where you can drive by the highway and look on the side of the road and see the ruts from the wagon train.

That's nuts.

We were just all pussies.

I'm glad it wasn't born then.

Um, but anyways, so, but yeah, so the canvas prairie was really known for, um, the, uh, biodiversity, um, and, uh, the grasslands, obviously, uh, a lot of the water, um, um, you know, to the Native Americans.

And then obviously the Oregon Trail did have a cutoff that went through the Camas Prairie.

So obviously when, um, immigrants or people started coming across the Oregon Trail, they observed the, uh, Camas Prairie and started settling there.

And, uh, recognizing, you know, it's fertile soils and so forth.

But bottom line is, is it did lead to an Indian War, the Manic Indian War, because the Native Americans were trying to fight for its main food sources.

yeah.

Kirsten's books were all like, It was like Oregon Trail adjacent, I think.

Like they were like heading west.

That was part of what she was, what her family was up to.

I remember there was like I've learned what dysentery was.

No, not dysentery.

That's from Oregon Trail.

There was another disease I learned about from Kirsten's books.

After considerable hesitation, a northerly route was taken, skirting the westerly limits of the Great Laramie Plain, which brought Fremont to the emigrant trail in the vicinity of the South Pass.

The volume of travel toward the Pacific coast, even at that early date, may be estimated from his description of the Oregon Trail as a broad, smooth highway where the numerous heavy wagons of the emigrants have entirely beaten and crushed the mountain sage.

Crossing Green River and following up Ham's Fork, Fremont reached the valley of Bear River, the principal tributary of Great Salt Lake, which was filled with emigrants traveling to the lower Columbia River.

Fremont expressed his surprise at the confidence and daring of the emigrants as he met in one place a family of two men and women and several children traveling alone through such a country so remote from civilization.

they have a, uh, they have a big festival every, uh, Labor Day weekend.

And, um, it's called and, um, it is like Santa Caligon days has to do with like the Santa, uh, Santa Fe trail, the California trail and the Oregon trail all started out of independence.

Yeah.

And so, um, uh, This festival has grown and grown and grown over the years.