Oregon Trail River Crossings
Crossing rivers on the Oregon Trail was one of the most dangerous parts of the journey.
Pioneers on the Oregon Trail faced an assortment of dangers on the trail many of which proved fatal. People died from disease, accidents, gunshots, rattlesnakes, and many other accidents. In fact, the trail was so deadly it has been called the “nation’s longest graveyard”. Some historians estimate that if you calculated the total number of people who died on the trail from 1840-1860 and then evenly spaced out all the graves from Independence to Oregon City you could place a grave every 50 yards over the entire 2,000-mile trip. Although diseases like cholera were responsible for the majority of deaths, river crossings were also one of the most dangerous events on the trail.
Rivers we know, use, and cross today are not like rivers in the past. That is because we now have around 89,000 dams across the United States and we are using increasing amounts of river water in our daily lives. Back in the Oregon Trail days pioneers would have had to contend with much larger rivers with much higher volumes. While smaller streams didn’t present much of an issue, larger rivers were more challenging. To meet the dangers of the crossings pioneers developed a variety of means to get across.
If you are reading book three of the Jemmey Fletcher series: Tyrant’s Road, you know that at certain times all the pioneers needed to do was block up their wagons and cross the channels. When water levels were higher pioneers had other options. Here is a drawing from the time period showing a ferry that was built using canoes to float the wagon across while the animals swam behind.
Ferrying the Platte River in 1845. Image via The Huntington Library.
The ferrying method would have cost the settlers precious time. In order to avoid long delays, sometimes they would simply float the wagons across. The video below shows how chaotic the crossings could get.
As you can see from the footage there was definitely risk involved. It is probably worth noting that the video does not show real Oregon Trail travelers, but living history reenactors showing what it would have been like. This is how most of the video footage we have of Oregon Trail river crossings is created. Then you have the story of Ezra Meeker.
Ezra Meeker was a pioneer who completed the Oregon Trail in 1852. As he grew older and the world began to change Meeker felt the nation was forgetting its past. In 1906, at the age of 76, Meeker decided to hitch up a team of oxen and recreate the Oregon Trail in reverse. The purpose of his trip was to promote knowledge of the Oregon Trail and to remind people about their history. Fortunately for us, by 1906 there was video recording technology and Ezra Meeker was recorded showing what an Oregon Trail river crossing was really like. Watch the video to see a real pioneer demonstrate the process.
As you can see from the video, Oregon Trail river crossings were precarious events. Although Meeker’s floating wagon works out good, it wouldn’t take much more than a strong gust of wind, an unseen tree limb, or other upsetting to spill the wagon into the river. Still, the adventurous heart of the pioneer allowed them to overcome obstacles like these river crossings.
