Settlers were dependent upon the slow, patient oxen to pull their belongings across the Oregon Trail. 
Drawing by William Henry Jackson, courtesy of Scott's Bluff National Monument.

The oxen moved slowly, about two miles an hour, and the settlers only averaged about fifteen miles a day.  The Trail went through dry plains and dusty deserts, and emigrants must have been burning hot and filthy, especially women and girls who had to wear long dresses or bloomers the whole way.  Oxen kicked up thick clouds of dust, and it was impossible to keep clean. 

Settlers who got the last place in the wagon train found themselves choking on the dust stirred up by fifty wagons before them. Many time the wagons would travel in a line across to avoid eating dust.  Ezra Meeker, an 1852 pioneer who settled in Puyallup, thought that the thick dust was one of the worst parts of overland travel.  He wrote:

    "The dust got deeper and deeper every day.  Going through it was like wading in water … Often it would lie in the road fully six inches deep, so fine that a person wading through it would scarcely leave a track.  And when disturbed, such clouds!  No words can describe it." 
[From The Ox-team or The Old Oregon Trail by Ezra Meeker]

The settlers rotated positions in the train so that no one got the last spot too often.

A typical day on the Oregon Trail started at 4:00 a.m., when the travelers were awakened by the sound of gunfire from the night guard.  While the men yoked the oxen or harnessed the horses, the women and girls hurried to make breakfast, usually hot coffee, biscuits, bacon, and boiled beans.  Then everyone stowed away their tents and blankets and repacked the wagons.  They were on the move by 7:00.  If you didn’t have to drive a wagon, look after your animals or care for young children, you might be able to walk for an hour or so beside a friend, and chat about the sights you saw and the new farmhouse you were going to build in Oregon.  But hot dry dust from the trail often stuck in throats and made talking difficult. 

At noon the “captain” would give the sign to stop for lunchtime, or “nooning,” as the pioneers called it.  Everyone quickly settled down for a cold lunch and an hour’s rest.  This gave everybody, including the animals, a chance to rest during a hot part of the day.  Then, at 1:00, the signal was given to get on the move again. 

Travel stopped around 5:00 in the evening, but the day was far from over.  Men had to tend to the animals and make repairs to the wagon.  Women had to cook supper, do the mending, and give their children their lessons.  Children had to gather firewood, or if none was available, scout for dry buffalo dung, called buffalo chips, which could be used as fuel to build a fire.  Many times children gathered buffalo chips during the day as they walked next to the wagon.  They would throw the chips into a canvas sling under the wagon.  This became a sort of “entertainment” for children.  After these chores were over there was finally a little time to relax.  Pioneers could gather around the campfire to tell stories or read from the Bible.  Someone might have a fiddle or guitar, and settlers could sing songs and dance. 

Then it was time for bed.  The men would take turns as night guards, staying awake to make sure no thieves tried to make off with horses or other precious goods.  Everybody else curled up in blankets and quilts, either sleeping in the wagon or in tents.  A few weary pioneers found a moment to write in their journals by candlelight.  Samuel Black Crockett, one of the members of the Simmons-Bush party, kept a diary of his experiences on the trail. 

on to page 7