Then
Emigrant Lansford Hastings:
"In procuring supplies for this journey, the emigrant should provide himself with, at least, 200 pounds of flour, 150 pounds of bacon; ten pounds of coffee; twenty pounds of sugar; and ten pounds of salt" (Emigrants Guide to Oregon and California, 1845).
Everyone who began the long journey west knew that it would not be easy. The Oregon Trail was about a 2,000 mile long journey that would take the emigrants about four to six months to arrive at their destination. About eighteen to twenty miles was about how much an emigrant would travel a day (National Oregon California Trail Center, Inc., 2006). To ensure that they arrived safely, the emigrants would need the right equipment and the right amount of supplies for the trip.
First, the emigrants had to have a wagon. It was a farm wagon that was small and was able to turn easily. The wagon box was only four feet by ten feet and the emigrants loaded them up with lots of food and other supplies, such as farming equipment, cooking equipment, hunting tolls, and clothes (Boettcher & Trinklein, 2011). However, after traveling a little distance, they would soon realize that they overloaded their wagons and would be forced to throw some of their items out. Because the wagons were full of their supplies, the emigrants had to walk most of the time, unless they were sick or injured. Also, before leaving, the emigrants would usually join a wagon train to travel with for many reasons. First, traveling in groups kept them safer from Indian attacks. Also, if someone were to get hurt the other people could help them. They depended on each other a lot during the long journey (Matthews, 1990).
To pull the wagons, oxen were often used because they did not tire easily, but only moved about two miles per hour. Joel Palmer, an emigrant who kept a journal of his journey west wrote about the ox. “Ox teams are more extensively used than any others. Oxen stand the trip much better, and are not so liable to be stolen by the Indians, and are much less trouble” (As cited in Dary, 2004, p. 140). The oxen were usually used in teams of four to six to pull the wagons. Even though the average distance traveled a day was around twenty miles, sometimes the oxen were forced to travel a little slower. According to an emigrant named Shoemaker, they only traveled about seven miles due to rainy weather (Shoemaker's Overland Diary, 1850).
Now
If we wanted to take a trip west today, preparing for it would be a little easier. First, we could pack all of our belongings in cars and vans; however, we would not have to pack as many supplies as the emigrants did. Today, there are many stores and restaurants along the way where a person could get food or anything else that they might need for their trip; therefore, a person would not need to worry about having to throw belongings out of the car. Also, we would not need oxen to pull our cars because today we have engines and gas which power our vehicles.
In addition to vehicles, we also have airplanes. Today, a person traveling west can book a flight to Oregon, have someone load up their belongings on the plane, and sit and enjoy a nice ride. A person flying to Oregon would arrive in a matter of hours.
Shoemaker's diary of his journey. Towards the bottom you can see where he wrote about traveling only seven miles due to rain. (Taken from http://www.loc.gov/search/?q=The+oregon+trail&fa=digitized%3atrue&sp=3)