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On this day in 1843, some 1,000 men, women, and children climbed aboard their wagons and steered their horses west out of the small town of Elm Grove, Missouri. The train comprised more than 100 wagons with a herd of 5,000 oxen and cattle trailing behind.
Interesting fact: Dr. Marcus Whitman, a Presbyterian missionary who had made the trip the year before, served as the guide for the 1843 migration.
The sudden increase of 1,000 emigrants was a product of a severe depression in the Midwest combined with a flood of propaganda from fur traders, missionaries, and government officials extolling the virtues of the land.
By: Jaylen Boner & Channing Siewert
One reason for The Great Migration was because of "Oregon Fever". It caused dreams and persuaded men and women to set for the pacific shores. Another reason is that thousands of those people were land speculators and were looking to buy new land. Pioneers were also looking for gold and silver. Most pioneers set off for adventure and to find new land to settle at.
Although U.S. sovereignty over the Oregon Territory was not clearly established until 1846, American fur trappers and missionary groups had been living in the region for decades. The first overland immigrants to Oregon, intending to farm, came in 1841 when a small band of 70 pioneers left Independence, Missouri. They followed a route used by fur traders, which took them west along the Platte River through the Rocky Mountains, the easy South Pass in Wyoming and then northwest to the Columbia River. In the years to come, pioneers came to call the route the Oregon Trail.
The first section of the Oregon Trail ran through the flat country of the Great Plains. As the other sections of the Oregon Trail approached, there are many rocky mountains and hills. Obstacles were scarce, although the river crossings could be dangerous for wagons.
A party of about 90 emigrants left Springfield, Illinois. This party was known as "The Donner Party". The emigrants were initially following the trail for Fort Bridger, Wyoming. From there, however, the emigrants decided to leave the established trail and take a new and supposedly shorter route to California laid out by an unscrupulous trail guide named Lansford Hastings. Hastings left word for the Donner Party to follow, promising that he would mark the trail for them. Feeling reasurred, the emigrants and their 20 wagons headed for Weber, Canyon. After making it to the canyon, the group found a note from Hastings stating that the route was much more difficult than he imagined. He said he would return to for them and help make it through. The emigrants decided to wait for him. After 8 days, Hastings had still not arrived. The emigrants sent a messenger up the canyon to find the guide. The messenger returned several days later with instructions from Hastings to follow another trail, and the emigrants complied. The new trail turned out to be even worse than the original. After having to carve a fresh road through thick trees and boulder-strewn ground, the Donner Party finally made it through the Wasatch Mountains, and arrived at the Great Salt Lake. The new "shortcut" had cost them many wasted days, and the Donner Party crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the late season. On October 28, a heavy snowfall had blocked the high mountain passes, trapping the Party in a frozen wilderness. Eventually reduced to cannibalism to survive–at least according to legend–only 45 of the original 89 emigrants reached California the following year. There is also an account of which a women, of the Donner Party, gave birth to a baby boy and they were forced to eat him or there would otherwise be starvation.
In 1842, a slightly larger group of 100 pioneers made the 2,000-mile journey to Oregon. The next year of 1843, however, the number of emigrants skyrocketed to 1,000. This is the reason it is called "The Great Migration of 1843". Farmers dissatisfied with their prospects in Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee, hoped to find better lives in the supposed paradise of Oregon.
Advantages to this migration is that more land had been found. Pioneers were able to build new houses and there was so much space to have land of their own. More jobs were available as well. Most emigrants were able to have the adventure they longed for.
Although the migration was a success, there were a few disadvantages. The danger of Indian attacks was a small but genuine risk. To be on the safe side, the pioneers drew their wagons into a circle at night to create a makeshift stockade. If they feared Indians might raid their livestock—the Plains tribes valued the horses, though generally ignored the oxen—they would drive the animals into the enclosure. There were also a few accounts of families committing cannibalism after running out of food, such as, the Donner Party.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/a-thousand-pioneers-head-west-on-the-oregon-trail
http://www.history.com/topics/donner-party
Interesting fact: Dr. Elijah White, a Presbyterian missionary who had made the trip the year before, served as the guide for this migration.
In conclusion: As with the 1,000-person party that made the journey in 1843, the vast majority of pioneers on the trail survived to reach their destination in the fertile, well-watered land of western Oregon. The migration of 1844 was smaller than the previous year, but in 1845 it reached to nearly 3,000. Thereafter, migration on the Oregon Trail was an annual event until eventually the year of 1884 arrived and the Union Pacific constructed a railway along the route.