Westward Expansion: The Lewis And Clark Expedition

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During the early 19th century, the Louisiana Purchase was made between Napoleon and President Thomas Jefferson. The Louisiana Purchase, was a land purchase for fifteen million dollars, that doubled the size of America. Due to Americans lacking knowledge of the land, President Jefferson, sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on an expedition to explore the territory, better known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The foundings made of the land by the explorers encouraged people to travel west. The reason why people wanted to go west were because they heard the tales of the great land that awaited them there. The tales of these lands, made groups of settlers sell all their belongings to make enough money to make the trip. The reason they did …show more content…
In order to get to the west, pioneers traveled through trails that Native Americans and fur trappers created and used for many years. The most common and famous trail was the Oregon Trail. The reason why it was the most famous and common trail was because the tales of the land and good life in Oregon caused many people to head to the territory and settle there. This trail went all the way from Independence, Missouri to Oregon Country. The Oregon Trail was two thousand miles long and took pioneers five to six months to travel. Each day, pioneers would walk more than 10 miles to reach their destination on time before the first snowfall. Another trail, that many people used was the Mormon Trail. The Mormon Trail was created in 1847, by the Mormons, who were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The Mormon Trail was created due to religious reason. To elaborate, the leader of the Mormons, Joseph Smith was murdered by an anti-Mormon mob, who were against the Mormon’s teachings of polygamy, which meant men were allowed to have more than one wife. After this incident occurred, the new leader of the Mormons, Brigham Young, moved his people out of the United States. He was able to do this by following part of the Oregon Trail. The Mormon Trail, started from Nauvoo, Illinois and went all the way to Utah. Another trail people used to travel west was the Santa Fe Trail. The Santa Fe Trail …show more content…
A well known challenge that pioneers faced were river crossings. This was made extremely challenging due to the prairie schooners. Once in the water, if the pioneers were not careful people could fall off the wagon and drown. To add, if people were not cautious when crossing or fording the river, the wagons could tip over and loose or wet supplies. Another challenge that the pioneers faced were broken wagon parts, rough weather, and hard sceneries. For instance, if pioneers did not have spare wagon parts like a wagon axle or a wagon tongue, they could not continue their journey. To add, heavy fogs or blizzards could delay pioneers journey for a long time. To elaborate, rough or impassable trails were very difficult for wagons to get across, that they would throw out items from the wagons to make them lighter for the oxen to carry. Other challenges people faced on the road to the west was thieves, a number of people would steal from pioneers as they slept. Another challenge that pioneers faced while traveling were having no grass for the oxen to eat. Also, another challenge was trading and hunting, due to running out of food because not many people were willing to offer to trade what you needed and not every time pioneers hunted was successful to bring food. Therefore, even though, the pioneers new of the
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