Oregon Trail Quiz Questions And Answers
What is the Oregon Trail? - Correct Answer In its earliest days, the Oregon Trail was a 2000 mile long
string of rivers and natural landmarks that could be followed from Missouri to Oregon. It was easy to get
lost without a guide who knew the way. In later years, after thousands of pioneers had followed the
Oregon Trail to settle in the Oregon Country, there were well-worn paths to follow. On the other hand,
there were also local roads, military roads, and even shortcuts, so while it was harder to get really lost, it
was still easy to take a wrong turn
Where did the Oregon Trail begin and end? - Correct Answer Well, that depends on how you look at it.
Officially, according to an act of Congress, it begins in Independence, Missouri, and ends in Oregon City,
Oregon. To the settlers, though, the trail to the Oregon Country was a five-month trip from their old
home in the East to their new home in the West. It was different for every family. Some people got ready
to leave the East, or "jump off" as they called it, in towns like St. Joseph or Council Bluffs, and others
jumped off from their old homes in Illinois or Missouri and picked up the Oregon Trail in the countryside.
Along the way, they could choose to take shortcuts or stick to the main trunk of the Trail, and the end of
their journey didn't really come until they settled a claim somewhere in the vast Oregon Country.
What's this "Oregon Country" you keep mentioning? - Correct Answer The State of Oregon was
established in 1859 with its present boundaries. In 1848, the Oregon Territory was declared, making the
region -- the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, along with part of western Montana -- part of the
United States. Before 1848, it was called the Oregon Country because it was not claimed by the USA. The
Oregon Country was even bigger than the Oregon Territory, since it stretched north all the way to Alaska.
It was also claimed by the British Empire, but so many American settlers arrived in the 1840s that the
British only held on to control over the northern part of the Oregon Country. That part of the old Oregon
Country is now western Canada.
Why did people want to go there? - Correct Answer Lots of reasons. There were some families that just
had the habit of moving west every five or ten years to follow the frontier. They liked the extra freedom
of life on the frontier, but civilization kept catching up to them. It seemed to them like emigrating to
Oregon would be the last move they would ever have to make. Others were in search of opportunity --
there were hard times back East, but in the 1840s married settlers could claim a square mile of the
Oregon Country, 640 acres, at no cost. Oregon had a reputation not only for having good farmland and
vast forests of huge, ancient trees, but also for being free of disease. This made the Oregon Country even
more attractive, since epidemics were common in the East and little was known about the causes of
disease and infection. The idea of allowing such valuable land to fall into the hands of the British inspired
patriotic Americans to head for Oregon, and gold strikes in southern and eastern Oregon during the
1850s inspired other sorts of Americans.
Didn't that make the Indians angry? - Correct Answer Some of them, yes -- very angry. The Pacific
Northwest had its share of theft, violence, and massacres as Europeans and Americans arrived and took
control of the land from the Indians. However, most of the Indians in the Oregon Country welcomed the
white settlers. Their experience with British and American traders led them to see the settlers as a new
source of wealth, as tribes which traded with whites became rich and powerful compared with their
neighbors. When American settlers began arriving, Indians often guided them through the mountains or
let them stake a claim on tribal lands in exchange for gunpowder, food, clothes, or horses. Unfortunately,
