Disease and Monotony on the Trail

Cholera plagued the wagon trains and many hundred of victims died quickly in a day's time.  They woke up feeling fine but by nightfall were gone.  Other diseases like scurvy, dysentery, and trachoma (caused by a dust-borne, eye irritating virus) also struck the pioneers.   Elsewhere in this blog we have discussed the burying of travelers on the journey with no headstone for fear of grave robbers and animals disturbing the body.  The families would never return to claim loved ones buried on the trail.

One of the things that prevented more serious diseases was the women boiling the water to make coffee and tea for drinking.  It not only masked the taste of the brackish water, but also killed bacteria that would have no doubt claimed more lives.  Water was not a pleasant choice for drinking.

Another hardship wasn't physical but nevertheless just as oppressive - a result of the endless prairies themselves.  Those travelers used to towns and domesticated life suddenly felt small and insignificant.  As Bernard DeVoto wrote, "The little line of wagons was pygmy motion in immensity, the mind becomes a speck...always quivering with a unidentified dread."  Days and days with no change in scenery was a difficult trial  in itself.

Indians, for the most part, did not directly attack any well-disciplined wagon train, as western lore told.  They would steal horses and cattle at night, and the hunters would start buffalo stampedes, however, which were deadly for wagon trains.

In spite of all this, most settlers made it to the banks of the Columbia and most conquered the mountains as well and found new adventure and a new life in the western wilderness.  Kudos to them!  It was quite an act of survival.

Next time...The California Trail
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Today in Pioneer History:  On February 27, 1897, Britain recognizes US authority over Western Hemisphere.