The Oregon Trail Summary

This book was quite difficult to read. The simple fact that it was written in 1896 is why the reader will have a little difficulty reading and comprehending this work, and the author is in no way at fault. Ross quotes extensively from source documents which proved to be very tedious. Not only was Ross a state representative during the time of Johnson's impeachment trial, but Ross' vote proved to be the final vote that would result in conviction or acquittal. His vote ultimately lost him the bid for re-election two years later. This work is a prime source document from 1896.

The Oregon Trail is a non-fiction book written and narrated by Francis Parkman Jr., a historian who ventures out into the Wild West back in the 1840s and describes the many accounts and experiences he has during his journey on the path of the Oregon Trail. Parkman portrays the lifestyles of both Western travelers, either as prairie schooners or as groups of horsemen, and Native Americans, both friendly and hostile, within forts, fields, and frontiers. It must be noted that Parkman did not travel the full length of the Oregon Trail, but he presented a vivid picture of life traveling within the Oregon Trail, and had an enormous influence in shaping the image of the American Frontier.

Approximately 20,000 people died while traveling on the Oregon Trail. Which took place in the mid 1840s, when Americans started seeking economic success by moving westward. The justification for the expansion was due to weakness in the Mexican government and economy. Since Americans regarded Mexicans as inferior, despite the statement, made by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, that “All men are created equal”, many of the citizens thought that the Mexican citizens did not deserve to keep their lands. America was not justified in its western expansion due to the lack of morality behind putting one person’s comfort above the safety of another.

The Oregon Trail, was a pathway that led thousands of Americans in the east, through the continent to find more opportunity somewhere else. It was a long adventure, being 2,170 miles, add or take a little because people found shortcuts over the years. It was a dangerous journey, reaching from Independence, Missouri to Willamette Valley in Oregon, but it was also full of rivers, harsh deserts, and rough climate. Also, new diseases and wagon accidents ravaged the brave souls, around 400,000, making a successful trip across the continent, really something to be proud of. Over decades of wagons carving the ground, from soil to hard stone, it has left markings of wagon wheels across the lands that it crosses such as Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon, where the trail splits up north and south to Washington to California.

In 1864 the Oregon Trail was made. It was made by a group of people who traveled 2,000 miles from Missouri. The Oregon Trail was dangerous for many pioneers. Some pioneers died along the way while others found land for farming.

This topic the Oregon Trail deals with all these people were looking for a better life or some freedom to practice their religion for themselves along with their families. Saw that they needed to move somewhere else and many of them decided to move west and take the Oregon trail or move to the state of California. Even though they knew it wasn't easy there was many trails that they had to go threw. They decided to take on that idea to leave for the Oregon trail.

Life for settlers out on the Oregon Trail was very treasonous. It was a game between life and death. They had to find the perfect balance between taking rest and traveling. Some hardship they could have faced were the diseases. One person could have not been careful and attracted a disease and it could be contagious. Resulting in wiping out the whole community. This would have also slowed down their journey. Another hardship would be winter itself. Crossing the winter through the mountains could lead to many problems like the shortage of food, hypothermia, and death of the animals. In the summer, they could die from dehydration.

In 1803, U.S. President Thomas Jefferson commissioned an expedition under the leadership of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the American Northwest. Together, they led the Corps of Discovery, which included men from a myriad of professions, including interpreters, fur trappers, boat builders, gunsmiths, and surveyors. Meriwether Lewis, captain of the expedition, had been trained prior to the expedition by the country best scientists in the fields of botany, zoology, celestial navigation, and medicine. William Clark was elected commander-in-chief because of his invaluable cartography skills, which were essential on trip. His skills helped with mapping most of landmarks and rivers that were encountered on the expedition, and his final map of the Lewis and Clark Trail is accurate within 40 miles and spans a distance of 8,000 miles. Another prominent figure on the expedition was Sacagawea. She spoke Shoshone, Hidatsa, meager French, had knowledge of edible & medicinal plants as well as Native American customs, and was an invaluable interpreter that bargained for resources from other Native American tribes. Her most important contribution to expedition, however, was her presence, a symbol to native tribes of the peacefulness of the traveling party. The expedition was launched for political, strategic, scientific, and commercial aims, instead of seeking riches and Christian converts, as other expeditions in the past have always vied, such as those commissioned by the

The British and the U.S. were both wanting to settle on the Oregon land. They both came up with an agreement of joint occupancy that would provide Oregon to be a free and open country for settlement by Great Britain and the U.S. in 1818. For a quarter of a century both countries maintained a peaceful coexistence. In the mid-1840s the Americans traveled west on the Oregon Trail. With the news getting back to the east of how great it was in the west, there were more settlers that picked up and moved out west.

Before settlers began to move to Oregon it had already been inhabited. Native Americans lives in Oregon this was their homeland. With the Study of Oregon, anthropologists had come to the conclusion that as many as 180,000 natives had lived in Oregon long before Europeans began to arrive. Therefore as the Oregon Trail became more popular and more people pushed west it brought an uprising of conflicts between pioneers and Native Americans. This interest in the west began with in 1803.

In the middle of the 19th century, the Oregon Trail was the main pathway for American emigrants who were searching for new lands. While most Oregon bound traveled a route that passed by landmarks, Missouri, Kansas, Wyoming, Nebraska, Idaho, and Oregon there was never one set of wagon ruts leading west. The route was considered too demanding for the women and children or covered wagons to navigate.In 1836 that's when it all changed by Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. BothWhitman, took a small party of wagons from St.Louis to the Walls Valley.In 1843 Marcus Whitman, helped lead the first major wagon train for around 1,000 settlers along the Oregon Trail. In about ten years, 50,000 settlers traveled by the Oregon Trail each year.

The Appalachian Trail was also the product of a daydream atop Stratton Mountain, the brainchild of Benton MacKaye. MacKaye was an off-and-on federal employee, educated as a forester and self-trained as a planner, who proposed it as the connecting thread of "a project in regional planning." His proposal, drawing on years of talk of a "master trail" within New England hiking circles, was written at the urging of concerned friends in the months after his suffragette-leader wife killed herself. It appeared in the October 1921 edition of the Journal of the American Institute of Architects, at the time a major organ the regional-planning movement. MacKaye envisioned a trail along the ridge-crests of the Appalachian

They were on their morning walk through the endless trails and old dirt paths that twisted and turned until you saw no end. The trails were covered with fresh snow stacked upon autumn’s forgotten leaves that were never bothered to be picked up. Walking into the woods, holding his gun with an old torn red flannel tee on, Jason has doubts that this might be his last season. Charlie was already climbing down the hillside, straying off the trails, and hoping of making the first kill to prove his worthiness to his owner. Jason calls back to Charlie, “Come ‘mere ol’ boy, don’t start without me!” and they begin their way quietly trudging through the dense woods to their special spot. They continue down the beaten path until Jason and Charlie come to a clearing in the woods where the only drops of sun come down through the dead leaves that have yet to fall. Here Jason pulls out a decaying tarp and sets up base camp. From camp, you can see all the rolling hillsides slope down into one large snake like river flowing through the mountains until it is lost in the distance. The Tennessee mountains are a treacherous terrain filled with steep drop offs and deadly trails. One can easily become lost and lose all sense of direction. Clutching his compass in one hand, Jason is prepared to stay the whole winter.

Technology has almost no impact on student's engagement if it is presented in inappropriate manner; as a result of which students are not motivated to enhance their scope of knowledge and interaction with each other. Susan Pinker in her article “Can Students Have Too Much Tech” claims that mission of providing technology to children from low income class to improve their interaction in education failed because of low quality of gadgets, lack of adult supervision and teacher training with technology; consequently, students misused the gadgets, scored less grades, and isolated from peers and family. Despite the fact that certain questions remain unanswered, the author provides not only strong and connected arguments, but also references to experts in this field to support the arguments.

Education has found its way into the loop of technology. Teachers are using ipads and laptops during class time to help conduct experiments, or share a presentation. This is allowing the students to gain instant access to the information they are seeking. Students also receive the opportunity to complete their homework online and print off their assignments instead of just using paper and pencil. Another pro for Technology in Education, there are countless sources out there which help enhance learning. In one research conducted, they compared the performance of teaching kids how to read a clock. One group was coached by an online app, another was shown by a toy clock, and the last group was trained by a drawing example. The results revealed that the children that were taught by the toy and app exceeded the paper drawing group (Galetzka).