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Shoofly Shae's
Oregon Trail
Check out the Oregon Trail Family
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Shoofly Shae, yore scout. |
We study the Oregon
Trail
Getting Ready to Go
Overview of the trail. Last link has great list of emigrants.
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Oregon Trail Budget Spreadsheet This is an
interactive Excel spreadsheet Rodeo Rich created for pioneers/students to use to
budget and track their initial startup expenses as they prepare to travel on the
Oregon Trail. An itemized list with realistic prices from the mid-1800's is
given in areas such as wagon supplies, provisions, animals, food, and luxuries.
Let the spreadsheet to do math for you!
Supply
Ledger The Supply Ledger is an interactive
Excel spreadsheet Rodeo Rich created for pioneers/student to use to keep track
of purchases and expenses while on the trail.
(Thank you, Rodeo Rich, for creating these and making them available!)
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The letter should
include the elements of a friendly letter: Heading (just the
county name and state would suffice), a greeting, the body, the closing
and the signature of the writer. If you are not sure how to write
a friendly letter, go to:
Friendly letter
Letter Generator Learn the parts of a letter,
then practice writing your own friendly and business letters.
Rubric/Scoring Guide
As with all
writing assignments, make sure you have a rough draft that shows
revisions, corrections, and editing along with your final draft.
The body should
include imagining you are your character and what it was like to be
leaving her friends and relatives to immmigrate to the Oregon Country.
Letter A
You are writing a letter telling about your leaving.
What would you say to a close friend about your journey?
How do you feel about the journey ahead?
Why have you (or why has your family) decided to go on this journey?
What do you expect to see on the journey? What challenges will you
face?
What will you say to your friend when you know you may never meet again?
Letter B
You are writing a letter to your friend or relative who is leaving.
What will you say to your friend or relative who is leaving?
How do you feel about them leaving?
What kinds of things will you miss doing with your friend, relative?
Express any concerns, fears, stories you have learned about the trip to
your friend, relative.
How will you keep in touch? Will you being saying goodbye forever?
Let your friend or relative know that you will be thinking about them in
thoughts, prayers...
Give them wishes of good luck, be careful, etc.
Remember to
use good grammar, check for correct mechanics, write a rough draft and
edit and revise on it, then a final copy. Letter should be at
least one handwritten page long. It does not have to be typed.
Use the rubric to make sure you get all the points you can!
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Daily Journal Template
Use this template to keep your family journal
as you make your trip west. Remember to date the entries with the historic
dates, mention the landmarks, and things that happen according to the Travel and
Fate cards. Remember to fill in which family member is doing the writing.
Note: When you begin a new entry, just go to the top menu, table, insert,
row below. You will find this template in your desktop pick up file.
Please make sure to drag a copy out, then immediately label it with your family
name, like this, (Hawke.familyjournal)
Note: This year we are using a classroom wiki
instead (pbwiki.com) Each family has its own page to keep journal entries.
Check them out at
Family Journals.
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Spirits
are high. Talk of the nostalgia of home has almost disappeared and
you're all anticipating the new lives ahead of you. The letter you send
home to friends and relatives are positive and filled with adventure and
hope. You learn that your next supply post is Fort Laramie. In
your letters, make sure you tell your kin, cousin or friends about the
hardships and things you've had to do to get this far. Be sure to
mention lots of details and name at least 4 events or sights or
experiences you've had so far on the trail. Be sure to share your
excitement as you write.
Rubric/Scoring Guide
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Research how hot springs
and geysers are formed, where they are located in the earth and on
the earth, including labeled diagrams. Paper must convey that
the student understands the formation of hot springs and geysers.
This is a science paper.
Rubric/Scoring Guide
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Write letters back east to the kinfolk
at "home" to tell them about our trials and tribulations, joys and
excitement.
Students will need to hand in both the rough draft and final copies.
Letter should include the following: You have arrived
in the promised land. Who are you? Where have you chosen to
live? How will you support your family? Will your children
go to school? Is the valley everything you dreamed it would be?
Name some events that took place between the end of the trail and Ft.
Kearny when you wrote your last letter.
Rubric/Scoring Guide |
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2 Independence Spring
Mile 0.0
May 1
Cholera!
What
is cholera?
Another
look at what is cholera?
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6 River Crossings
Mile 54
May 5-7
5 miles southeast of Lawrence,
Kansas
Hardships
Wakarusa
River (also known as Bluejacket, named after George
Bluejacket, proprietor of a ferry and hotel c1855) |
8 Fremont Springs
Mile 194
May 16
4 miles south of Diller, Nebraska
John
C. Fremont 1 | 2
Kit
Carson 1 | 2 |
9 The Narrows
Mile 252
May 20
1.5 miles northwest of Oak,
Nebraska
Pioneer Cures for Rattlesnake
Bites:
Cures for Rattlesnake Bites
Cure for bites
Old Time Cures
(see #66)
Old
Time Remedies
for People & Animals |
10 Fort Kearny
Mile 319
May30
Fort
Kearny
Fort
Kearny 2
5.5 miles south of Kearny,
Nebraska
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12 Gilman' Station
Mile 401
June 11
A fort, located 8 miles west of Gothenburg,
Nebraska
Gillman's Station
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15
Windlass Hill
Windlass
Hill picture
Mile 500
June 25
Garden County near Ash Hollow,
Nebraska |
17 Courthouse Rock
and Chimney Rock
Mile 561
June 30
Courthouse
Rock 5 miles due south of Bridgeport, Nebraska
Courthouse Rock
Picture
of Chimney Rock
Chimney
Rock 3.5 miles southwest of Bayard, Nebraska |
20 Horse Creek
Crossing
Mile 615
July 6
4 miles southwest of Morril,
Nebraska |
22 Fort Laramie
Goshen County, Wyoming
Fort
Laramie
Fort
Laramie 2
Video
When you arrive here, you need to stock up on goods.
Click here to
see a short price list and directions for what else you need to write in your
journal and on your supply list.
24 Ayers Natural Bridge
(12 miles west of Douglas, Wyoming)
Pictures of Ayers Bridge |
26, 27 Poison Spring,
Alkali Slough
Natrona County, Wyoming
Poison Spring Pictures and info
Experiments Page on Acids
and Alkalines
Reactions
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28Saleratus(PlayaLake)
(1 mile northeast of Independence
Rock, Wyoming)
Saleratus Lake
(Click on the audio to hear about it.)
Playa Lake is made up of bicarbonate
soda, also known as baking soda. Baking soda is an alkali. It reacts with
the flour in bread to help it rise. Baking soda helps things to rise, otherwise
you would have food like hardtack. |
29 Independence Rock
48 miles southwest of Casper,
Wyoming
Second only to Chimney Rock as a major
natural landmark - gives a clue to its importance as a gauge of trail progress.
Historic
Sites
Picture
Historic
Info
See the names!
Independence
Rock
Video |
30 Devil's Gate
(Natrona County, Wyoming)
Video
Historic
Sites
Devil's
Gate
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31 Ice Spring Slough
Video
9.5 miles east of Sweetwater
Station, Wyoming
2 different
paths linked together at Ice Spring Slough - always take the road to South
Pass.
"The next milepost was Ice Slough, a shallow basin at the 6000 foot level just
before South Pass. Ponds and springs here were covered with turf. Ice from the
previous winter was insulated under the turf and could be dug out during the hot
summer months. The surface water was alkaline, but the ice was clear and good:
"We dug down in the earth about 12 inches, and found chinks of ice. We carried
it along till about noon, and made some lemonade for dinner. It relished first
rate." (George Belshaw, July 4, 1853) |
32 South Pass
South Pass was important only
as a landmark - offered the easiest way across the Continental Divide.
Video of South Pass
Historic
Sites
South
Pass Information
Continental Divide
What is the continental divide?
Map of the continental divide
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33 Parting of the
Ways
(9 miles northeast of Farson,
Wyoming
)
Picture
Sublette
Cutoff
Map
Three
Island Crossing Marks a brief split in the trail that
offered pioneers two choices - each of which carried risks. The Three Crossings
Route was a narrow rugged path that crossed the Sweetwater River 3 times
in a row; the Deep Sand Route crossed the river once, but passed through
a stretch of trail with thick, heavy sand that could turn to quicksand
after heavy rains. The Deep Sand Route was the safer of the two.
Deep Rut Hill Video
Platte River Crossing Video
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34 Fort Bridger
Little Sandy Crossing, 7 miles
northeast of Farson, Wyoming
Historic
Sites
Fort
Bridger
Fort
Bridger video
Fort
Bridger 2
Pictures of Fort Bridger (mute yore sound!) |
35 Emigrant Spring
(Sandy Crossing)
18 miles west of Fontelle,
Wyoming,
Sandy River Crossing
(click on picture to make
it bigger)
Emigrant Springs
(click on the picture to make it bigger)
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36 Thomas Fork
Crossing
rejoining the trails Sublette
and Ft. Bridger, 1.2 miles west of Border, Wyoming
Thomas Fork Crossing
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37 Steamboat Spring
(Soda Springs), Idaho
Soda Springs 1
Soda Springs 2
Geysers and Hot Springs sites
About
Geysers
Weird Geology:
Geysers
Geysers,
Fumeroles, and Hot Springs
Hot
Springs and How They Work
Iceland
Pictures |
38
Fort Hall
(south of the Snake River,
Idaho)
Fort
Hall 1
Fort
Hall 2
Price List for Supplies
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39 Three Island Crossing
Elmore County, Idaho
Three
Island Crossing
Historic
Site
Information
Quicksand
The
Crossing
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40 Farewell Bend
Baker County Oregon
Say goodbye to the Snake
River
Farewell Bend was a significant
landmark to the pioneers because it was their last view of the Snake River.
Fairwell
Bend |
41 Ladd Canyon
Hill
Union County, Oregon, at the
base of the Blue Mountains
Blue
Mountains |
42 Deadman's Pass
Umatilla County, Oregon
Deadman's
pass
What are
renegade Indians? |
43 Whitman Mission
Whitman
Mission
Whitman
Mission
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Barlow Road
Barlow
Road
Barlow Road |
The Whitmans
Narcissa
Whitman
The
Spauldings and the Nez Perce What
do they have in common with Lewis and Clark? |
The Columbia Gorge
Columbia
Gorge
Pictures of the Columbia Gorge
The
Dalles
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The end of the trail...
44 Willamette Valley
Click to enlarge
"Summer, Willamette Valley"
Painting by April Waters
to see more of her work, go to:
www.aprilwaters.com
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Willamette River has gone
through many spellings but the root word was the Indian word, Wal-lamt.
When an early explorer asked an Indian the name as he pointed toward the
river, the Indian answered "Wal-lamt". The Indian was looking at the 'west
bank' of the river.
Oregon City
Oregon City
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Extra Credit Project
(To have permission to earn extra credit, you must
get teacher approval first.)
Oregon Trail Research
Use another sheet of paper to answer
these questions. Be sure to number each answer and write the question.
Answers should be in complete sentences and in neat handwriting or typed.
Use the sites below for information. You must write both the question (in bolded font)
and the answers (in regular font). This project is due at the end of the
unit. |
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