Table of Contents
What percentage of people died along the Oregon Trail?
6-10%
It is estimated that 6-10% of all emigrants of the trails succumbed to some form of illness. Of the estimated 350,000 who started the journey, disease may have claimed as many as 30,000 victims.
How many deaths were there on the Oregon Trail?
Combined with accidents, drowning at dangerous river crossings, and other illnesses, at least 20,000 people died along the Oregon Trail. Most trailside graves are unknown, as burials were quick and the wagon trains moved on.
How many Native Americans died from the Oregon Trail?
Historical studies indicate that between 1840-1860 that Indians killed 362 emigrants, but that emigrants killed 426 Indians. Of the emigrants killed by Indians, about 90% were killed west of South Pass, mostly along the Snake and Humboldt Rivers or on the Applegate Trail to the southern end of the Willamette Valley.
What led to deaths on the Oregon Trail?
Diseases and serious illnesses caused the deaths of nine out of ten pioneers. Such diseases as cholera, small pox, flu, measles, mumps, tuberculosis could spread quickly through an entire wagon camp. Cholera was the main scourge of the trail.
How many pioneers survived the Oregon Trail?
Only around 80,000 of the estimated 400,000 Oregon Trail emigrants actually ended their journey in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Of the rest, the vast majority splintered off from the main route in either Wyoming or Idaho and took separate trails leading to California and Utah.
Is the trail of tears the Oregon Trail?
Thus began Oregon’s “Trail of Tears.” The Rogue River and Chasta Tribes were the first to be removed from their aboriginal lands. They were joined by members of other Tribes and bands as the march passed other tribal homelands. The journey took 33 days and many died along the way.
Is Meek’s Cutoff a true story?
In “Meek’s Cutoff”—based on a true story—three families are guided westbound by the crude, mythomaniac con man Stephen Meek, who seems to have led them astray. “Meek’s Cutoff” programs its responses under the apparent guise of an objective depiction of things as they were.