of the party, ,stripped the flesh from their bones, roasted and ate it,
The Surge Westward
averting their eyes from each other, and weeping'" More than a month
passed before seven frostbitten survivors reached an American settlement.
Early in April 1846, 87 pioneers led
By then, the rest had died and two Native-American guides had been shot
by George Donner, a well-to-do 62-
and eaten.
year-ord farmer, set out from Illinois
Relief teams immediately sought to rescue the pioneers still trapped
for California. As this group of
near Truckee pass. The situation that the rescuers found was unspeakably
pioneers headed westward, they
gruesome. Surviving members of the Donner party were delirious from
never imagined the hardship that
hunger and over exposure. One survivor was found in a small cabin next to
awaited them. The pioneers, 27
the cannibalized body of a young boy. Of the original 87 members of the
wagons were loaded not only with
party, only 47 survived.
necessities, but with fancy foods,
It took white
liquor, and such luxuries as built in beds and stoves.
Americans a
In Wyoming, the party decided to take a shortcut, having read in a
century and a half
guidebook that pioneers could save 400 miles by cutting south of the
to expand as far
Great Salt Lake. At first the trail was "all that could be desired," but soon
west as the
huge boulders and dangerous mountain passes slowed the expedition to a
Appalachian
crawl. During one stretch, the party traveled only 36 mires in 21 days. In
Mountains, a few
late October, the Donner party reached the eastern Sierra Nevada and
hundred miles
prepared to cross the Truckee Pass, the last remaining barrier before they
from the Atlantic
arrived in California's Sacramento Valley. They climbed the high sierra
coast. It took
ridges in an attempt to cross the pass, but early snows blocked their path.
another 50 years
Trapped, the party built crude tents covered with clothing, blankets,
to push the
and animal hides, which were soon buried under 14 feet of snow. The
frontier to the
pioneers intended to slaughter their livestock for food, but many of the
Mississippi river.
animals perished in 40-foot snowdrifts. To survive, the Donner party was
By 1830, fewer
forced to eat mice, their rugs, and even their shoes. In the end, surviving
than 100,000
members of the party escaped starvation only by eating the flesh of those
pioneers had
who died.
crossed the
Finally, in mid-December, 17 men and women made a last-ditch effort
Mississippi.
to cross the pass to find help. They took only a six-day supply of rations,
During the
consisting of finger-sized pieces of dried beef-two pieces per person per
1840s, however,
day. During a severe storm two of the group died. The surviving members
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tens of thousands of Americans ventured beyond the Mississippi River.
Inspired by the new vision of the West as a paradise of plenty, filled with
fertile valleys and rich land, thousands of family chalked GTT ("Gone to
Texas") on their gates or painted "California or Bust" on their wagons and
joined the trek westward. By 1850 pioneers had pushed the edge of
American settlement all the way to Texas, the Rocky Mountains, and the
Pacific Ocean.
Questions:
What happened to the Donner party?
How did the survivors reach California?
other men traveled up the Missouri River, across the Rocky Mountains, and
along the Columbia River as far as the Pacific before returning to 5t. Louis.
In 1806, as Lewis and Clark returned from their 8000-mile expedition, a
young army lieutenant named Zebulon Pike left St. Louis to explore
Louisiana territory’s southern portion. Traveling along the Arkansas River,
Pike saw the towering peak that bears his name. He and his party then
traveled into Spanish territory along the Rio Grande and Red River. Pike's
description of the wealth of Spanish towns in the Southwest attracted
American traders to the region.
Pike’s report of his expedition, published in l8l0, helped to create one
of the most influential myths about the Great Plains; that is, that the plains
were nothing more than a “Great American Desert,” a treeless and
waterless land of dust storms and starvation. “Here,” wrote Pike, is "barren
PATHFINDERS
soil, parched and dried up for eight months of the year… [without] a speck
In 1803, the year that the United States purchased the Louisiana territory
of vegetation."
from France, President Thomas Jefferson appointed his personal secretary,
Meriwether Lewis, and
Questions:
William Clark, a former U.S. military officer, to explore the area's
northern portion. Between 1804 and 1806, Lewis and Clark and about 45
2
What did Lewis and Clark do?
What areas did Zebulon Pike explore?
The Santa Fe Trail served primarily commercial functions. From the
MOUNTAIN MEN
early 1820s until the 1840s, an average of 80 wagons and 150 traders
Fur traders and trappers quickly followed in the
used the trail each year. Mexican settlers in Santa Fe purchased cloth,
footsteps of Lewis and Clark, who brought back
reports of rivers and streams teeming with beaver
hardware, glass, and books. On their return east, American traders carried
keelboats ferried fur trappers up the Missouri River.
traders had extended the trail into California with branches reaching Los
Mexican blankets, beaver pelts, wool, mules, and silver. By the l830s,
and otter in the northern Rockies. Starting in 1807,
Angeles and San Diego.
By the mid-1830s these "mountain men" had
marked out the overland trails that would lead
pioneers to Oregon and California.
The Rocky Mountain Fur Company played a
central role in opening the western fur trade. Instead
of buying skins from the Native Americans, the
company ran ads St. Louis newspapers asking for white trappers willing to
go to the wilderness. In 1822, it sent a hundred trappers along the upper
Missouri River. Three years later the company introduced the "rendezvous"
system, under which trappers met once a year at an agreed-upon meeting
place to barter pelts for supplies. "The rendezvous,” wrote one participant,
"is one continued scene of drunkenness, gambling, and brawling and
fighting, as long as the money and the credit of the trappers last.”
Questions:
How did the Rocky Mountain Fur Company open the
western fur trade?
TRAILBLAZING
Questions:
The Santa Fe and Oregon trails were the two principal routes to the far
west. William Becknell, an American trader, opened the Santa Fe Trail in
What is the importance of the Santa Fe Trail?
SETTLING THE FAR WEST
1821. His 800-mile journey from Missouri to Santa Fe took two months.
During the 1840s thousands of pioneers headed westward toward
When he could find no water, Becknell drank blood from a mule's ear and
California and Oregon. In 1941, the first party of 69 pioneers left Missouri
the contents of a buffalo's stomach. Ultimately, the trail tied the New
for California, led by an Ohio schoolteacher named John Bidwell. The
Mexican southwest economically to the United states and hastened
members of the party knew little about western travel: "We only knew that
American penetration of the region.
California lay to the west.” The hardships the party endured were nearly
unbearable. They were forced to abandon their wagons and eat their pack
3
But there was another side. True they had suffered, but the satisfaction of
animals, "half roasted, dripping with brood.” But American pioneering of
deeds accomplished and difficulties overcome more than compensated and
the far west had begun. The next year another 200 pioneers went west.
made the overland passage a thing never to be forgotten."
Over the next 25 years, 350,000 more made the trek.
Questions:
LIFE ON THE TRAIL
Each spring, pioneers gathered at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Independence
and St. Joseph, Missouri, to begin a 2000-mile journey westward. For many
families, the great spur for emigration was economic. The financial
Why did settlers go west?
What were the hardships and divisions of labor for
pioneers on the trail west?
depression of the late 1830s, accompanied by floods and epidemics in the
MANIFEST DESTINY
woman: "We had nothing to lose, and we might gain a fortune.” Most
America's "manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by
Mississippi Valley, forced many to pull up stakes and head west. Said one
In 1845 an editor named John L. O'Sullivan referred in a magazine to
settlers traveled in family units. Even single men attached themselves to
Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions."
One of the most influential slogans ever coined, the term manifest destiny
family groups.
At first, pioneers tried to maintain the rigid sexual division of labor that
expressed the romantic emotion that led Americans to risk their lives to
characterized early nineteenth-century America. Men drove the wagons
settle the far West.
and livestock, stood guard duty, and hunted buffalo and antelope for extra
The idea that America had a special destiny to stretch across the
meat. Women got up before dawn, collected wood and "buffalo chips"
continent motivated many people to migrate west. Manifest destiny
(animal dung used for fuel), hauled water, kindled campfires, kneaded
inspired a 29-year-old named Stephen F. Austin to talk of grandly
dough, and milked cows. The demands of the journey forced a blurring of
colonizing the Mexican province of Texas with "North American
performed many duties previously reserved for men. They drove wagons,
that the United States should own the entire Pacific all the way to Alaska.
previously regarded as women’s work.
Americans from their land, war with Mexico, and American expansion into
Diseases such as typhoid, dysentery, and mountain fever killed many
also inspired missionaries, farmers, and pioneers, who dreamed only of
gender-role distinctions for women who, in addition to domestic chores,
population, enterprise and intelligence." It led expansionists demanding
yoked cattle, and loaded wagons. Some men did such things as cooking,
Some nationalists invoked the idea to justify the displacement of Native
Accidents, disease, and sudden disaster were ever-present dangers.
Cuba and Central America. More positively, the idea of manifest destiny
pioneers. Emigrant parties also suffered devastation from buffalo
transforming plains and fertile valleys into farms and small towns.
stampedes, prairie fires, and floods. At least 20,000 emigrants died along
Questions:
the Oregon Trail.
Still, despite the hardships of the experience, few emigrants ever
regretted their decision to move west. As one pioneer put it: "Those who
What is manifest destiny?
What is the historical significance of manifest destiny?
-America and Its People, Third Edition, by James Martin et al'
crossed the plainsnever forgot the ungratified thirst, the intense heat and
bitter cold, the craving hunger and utter physical exhaustion of the trail….
4
In John Gast's "American Progress" (1872), a diaphanously and precarious clad America floats westward thru the air with the "Star of Empire" on her forehead.
she has left the cities of the east behind, and the wide Mississippi, and still her course is westward. in her right hand she carries a school book-- testimonial of
the national enlightenment, while with her left she trails the slender wires of the telegraph that will bind the nation. fleeing her approach are Indians, buffalo,
wild horses, bears, and other game, disappearing into the storm and waves of the pacific coast. they flee the wondrous vision--the star "is too much for them."
5