The Oregon and California Trails

Use the information below to make a PowerPoint slide show on the Oregon Trail AND the California Trail.

The Oregon Trail

Rephrase each question and find the answer to make a slide show. Each question might take 2 to 3 slides. Add pictures to help explain.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/instructor/westwardho.htm

Intense site on Oregon Trail. Lots of good information.
http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/Oregontrail.html

FAQ on the Oregon Trail. Can be used to make PowerPoint show.
http://www.blm.gov/or/oregontrail/education-kids-homework.php

The California Trail

The California Trail carried over 250,000 gold-seekers & farmers to the gold fields & rich farmlands of California during the 1840's and 1850's. The California Trail is over 2,000 miles in length and passes through or into eight states. As shown on the following map, the California Trail began just past Fort Hall in Idaho in 1841 and followed the Humboldt River in Nevada to the east side of the Sierra Nevada. Additional routes to cross the Sierra Nevada branched off of the California Trail are also shown.

Before the Gold Rush in 1849, the destination of most overland emigrants was to Oregon beginning in 1841. Between 1841 and 1848 four times as many emigrants had migrated overland to Oregon (11,000) than to California (2,700). During the peak gold rush years of 1849-54, 200,000 emigrants traveled overland to California. From 1855 to 1860, the overland migration to California dropped to less than 50,000.

Although as many as 250,000 traveled overland to northern California during the two decades leading up to 1860, untold thousands migrated overland to southern California by way of the various southern routes. During the peak year of 1849, some 20,000 traveled on the southern trails to reach San Diego, Los Angeles. Even more came by sea to the gold fields. From April 1849 to April 1850, for example, approximately 62,000 gold seekers arrived on ships at the port of San Francisco. The journey to California was difficult. In 1850, for example, it's estimated that one out of every ten died on the trail (about 5,000), primarily from cholera. Not all who came overland and by sea during the gold rush found gold from the gold fields. The majority were unsuccessful in their quest.

Before the discovery of gold in January 1848, California had a small Hispanic-Anglo population of no more than 13,000 plus about 150,000 Native Americans down from about 300,000 prior to Hispanic settlement in 1769. By 1860 California's population had swollen to 380,000 with Native Americans declining to about 30,000.

VIDEOS ON THE OREGON-CALIFORNIA TRIAL

Oregon Trail Introduction

Part One: Starting the trail

Part Two: Trail Life

Part Three: Trail Landmarks

Pictures of the California Trail

Beginning of California Trail: Idaho to Nevada

California Trail Through Nevada

Other trails that split off of California Trail

Long Description of the California Trail. You may have to copy the names of places and go to Google Maps to find these places along the Trail:

The main branch of the California Trail across the Great Plains was identical to the Oregon and Mormon Trails, going up the Missouri River, then crossing Nebraska along the Platte and North Platte Rivers to present-day Wyoming. The trail then followed the Sweetwater River across Wyoming, crossing the continental divide at South Pass, where it diverged from the Mormon Trail. From South Pass it went northwest of Fort Hall in present-day southeastern Idaho along the Snake River. West of Fort Hall at the junction of the Raft and Snake River, the trail diverged from the Oregon Trail. The trail followed the Raft River southwest. It then passed through the City Of Rocks and over Granite Pass where it followed southwest along Goose Creek, Little Goose Creek, and Rock Springs Creek. It passed through Thousand Springs Valley, and then along West Brush Creek to Willow Creek, then to the headwaters of the Humboldt River in present-day northeastern Nevada. The trail followed the north bank of the Humboldt River across Nevada to Humboldt Bar.
At the Humboldt Sink, the trail again diverged, with the Truckee River Route proceeding west across the Forty-Mile Desert and reaching the Truckee River at the site of modern-day Wadsworth, Nevada. This trail then followed the Truckee River to Donner Lake, crossed the Sierra crest through Donner Pass, and then proceeded down the Sierra through Emigrant Gap. The trail ended up at Sutter's Fort, which is located in modern-day Sacramento, California.