Western Historic Trails Teacher Guide

 

 

 

Owned and operated by the State Historical Society of Iowa, the Western Historic Trails Center in Council Bluffs opened in 1997. A partnership with the National Park Service, the Center interprets the Lewis and Clark, California, Oregon, and Mormon Pioneer Trails. The Western Historic Trails Center covers 480 acres of river bottom adjacent to the Missouri River and Interstates 80 and 29, including the Lied Historical Building and Harvey’s Recreation Complex.

The great movement of people across the continent during the 19th century was of national significance to the United States. The Trails have continued to evolve into the routes for the Transcontinental Railroad, the Lincoln Highway, and our modern system of Interstates. Below you will find more in-depth descriptions of the four different trails interpreted at the site.

The Lewis and Clark Trail:

The journey of the Corps of Discovery from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean was one of the most monumental episodes in the early history of the United States. The Corps multifaceted goals were planned by President Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson had always had an interest in the Trans-Mississippi West and had just arranged the Louisiana Purchase with France. Jefferson desired increased knowledge about the geography, people, plants, animals, minerals, and weather of the West, a place where it was rumored wooly mammoths still existed, where lived blue-eyed Indians that spoke Welsh, and where an all-water "Northwest Passage" provided an easy route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Jefferson also hoped to persuade the Indian Nations of the Louisiana Territory that the United States had only the friendliest of intentions and to counteract European claims to the "Oregon Country" in the Columbia River basin.

Jefferson chose his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead the expedition, and Lewis asked his former commanding officer William Clark to be co-commander. On May 14, these two able Virginians set out with a party of 46 hauling a keelboat up the Missouri River. The Corps included several boatmen such as the French-Indian, fiddle-playing Pierre Cruzatte as well as York, Clark’s African-American slave. By the end of July, they had reached the present day area of Council Bluffs, Iowa. At "White Catfish Camp" they made repairs while searching for the local Indian Nations. Near what is now Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, Lewis and Clark finally met with some Otoe and Missouri. This historic meeting at the "Council Bluffe" gave this area and the modern city its name.

It would take another year and four months for the expedition to cross the Plains and the Rocky Mountains (where no Northwest Passage was to be found) before they reached the Pacific. To get through the mountains, the Corps was indebted to Sacagawea, a young Shoshone mother who was the wife of fur-trader Toussaint Charbaneau. On reaching the Pacific Ocean, the Corps spent a cold, wet winter at Fort Clatsop hoping to get a ride back home on a passing ship. Unfortunately no ships passed near their camp, forcing them to return up the Columbia River, back through the mountains, and down the Missouri River.

The last contact the Corps had with the United States had been prior to their first winter in North Dakota. Most Americans assumed the worst for the expedition. With only one death due to natural causes, their return to St. Louis in 1806 sparked great fanfare and celebration. This continued wherever Lewis and Clark traveled. After three years of exploration the Corps disbanded and went their separate ways. Lewis, who was appointed Governor of Louisiana Territory, died mysteriously at the age of 35, while Clark lived a productive life in St. Louis before passing away in 1838. The effects of their journey on the expansion of the young United States continued long after their deaths.

Oregon Trail:

During the early 1830s waves of pioneer farmers and groups of missionaries began to leave the United States for the "Oregon Country" of the Pacific Northwest. The farmers wanted cheaper land where they and their families could build new lives for themselves while the missionaries sought to convert the Indian Nations from their "pagan" lifestyle. The trail west began at a string of frontier towns along the Missouri River known as "Jump off" points like Independence, Weston, and Council Bluffs. There the emigrants could buy last minute supplies like flour, oxen, and wagons. They also formed themselves into groups called Companies while waiting for the grass to grow on the Plains.

Once across the Missouri River, the emigrant trails merged in the vicinity of Fort Kearny where the road led west along the south side of the Platte River into Wyoming. The trail then headed into the Rocky Mountains, through the South Pass, and into Idaho and Oregon until The Dalles at the Columbia River was reached. Here the emigrants were blocked by Mount Hood, and most were forced to build rafts to float their belongings down the Columbia River to places like Fort Vancouver and Oregon City. From there their farms and settlements spread throughout the Willamette and Columbia River valleys into Washington.

Their arduous journey of almost 2,000 miles was alternately tedious and dangerous as hostile Indians usually proved less a threat than disease, exposure, and deadly accidents. The emigrants arrival in Oregon established a strong claim by Americans to the Pacific Northwest. By 1846, the United States of America stretched across the continent.

The California Trail:

California was a sleepy northern province of Mexico before the United States acquired it after the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). California was the destination for a few overland emigrants as early as 1844, but it was the discovery of gold by James Marshall at Sutter’s Mill in January 1848 that set off the Gold Fever. A flood of emigrants headed west as towns like Sacramento, San Francisco, and Placerville boomed almost overnight. Miners from China, Europe, Hawaii, and South America joined those who traveled across the United States. All would become known as ‘49’ers of the Great California Gold Rush.

Some of these ‘49’ers from the United States traveled by sea around the tip of South America or across the Panama isthmus. However, many of them headed west by following the Oregon Trail as far as they could. Unlike the Oregon-bound farmers, the ‘49’ers were unprepared for the journey and bought most of their supplies at the increasingly competitive Jump Off towns along the Missouri River. At places like Saint Joseph in Missouri or Saint Francis in Iowa, the Gold Rushers would mail a last letter home while eager outfitters tried to sell them as much as possible before they crossed the Missouri River.

The California Trail followed the Platte River west through Nebraska, but split off from the Oregon Trail at Fort Bridger in Wyoming or at Soda Springs in Idaho. The road of the ‘49’ers then headed southwest across mountain ranges where the snow came early and deserts where scarce water holes were tainted by alkali and cholera. Finally, their trail ended in the mining areas of the Sierra Nevada Mountains or down into the fertile Sacramento and American River valleys.

These ‘49’ers were mostly men in a hurry who only intended to get rich quick before returning home. None of them found gold nuggets the size of hen’s eggs, and only a very few acquired enough gold dust to truly "strike it rich." Many returned home discouraged as the mining boomtowns faded away and panning for gold was replaced by expensive extractive methods. Those who truly "struck it rich" were the entrepreneurs who ran the outfitting stores and charged exorbitant prices for their goods. Several miners remained in the Golden State to build the towns and cities that would attract people from all over the world to move to California.

The Mormon Pioneer Trail:

Religious persecution forced people belonging to the Latter-Day Saints Church (or the Mormons) to look for a new land where they could practice their religion in peace. From 1846 to 1869 more than 70,000 Mormons made their way West along the Mormon Pioneer Trail in what was one of the most organized mass migrations of any people in history.

The Mormon Pioneer Trail began at Nauvoo, Illinois. The Mormons had made this Mississippi River city one of the largest towns in the West, but they faced the growing hostility of neighboring, non-Mormon "gentiles" who wanted to drive them from the state. The hostility escalated until the Mormon leader Joseph Smith was murdered in 1845, and the Mormons were forced to abandon Nauvoo. In February 1846 the first Mormons began to cross the frozen Mississippi River into Iowa. Four months later, after a 130-day journey across just 327 miles, the first 3,000 Mormons reached the banks of the Missouri River at what is now Council Bluffs. There they established numerous camps and small villages across southwestern Iowa and into Nebraska, including what became the modern Iowa communities of Council Bluffs, Glenwood, Crescent, and Thurman.

Leaving from Missouri River camps like Winter Quarters, Kanesville, or Bethlehem, the Mormons followed the Platte River west across Nebraska. The Mormon Pioneer Trail follows the north side of the Platte, a route known historically as the Council Bluffs Road. At Fort Laramie in Wyoming, the Mormon Pioneer, Oregon, and California Trails merged together and continued west to Fort Bridger. From Fort Bridger the Mormon Pioneer Trail headed south into the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. There, on land considered too barren for crops, the Mormons would build their City of Salt Lake surrounded by a host of irrigated farms and villages. This isolated "Deseret" eventually became the modern state of Utah.

PRE-VISIT ACTIVITIES:

  1. Discuss the appropriate behavior in public places such as museums, interpretative centers, and art galleries, including limitations on running, touching objects, and the like.
  2. Discuss the difference between a museum that features historical artifacts versus an interpretative center that uses a variety of educational displays.
  3. Discuss the overland trails movement. Why people emigrated and where they moved. Familiarize students with the common terms of the day.
  4. Discuss the concept of Manifest Destiny and how these ideas effected the Native American peoples.

OBJECTIVES:

Students will be able to identify the geography encountered on the Trails 

  • Missouri River
  • Platte River
  • Great Plains
  • Rocky Mountains
  • Desert
  • Sierra Nevada Mountains
  • Pacific Ocean

Students will be able to identify the reasons why people used the Trails

  • Lewis & Clark: explore newly acquired land, contact Native peoples for trade, search for an all-water route to the Pacific
  • Oregon: less expensive farmland, economic troubles at home, missionaries.
  • California: gold, more opportunity
  • Mormon Pioneer: escaping religious persecution

Students will be able to identify the effects of Trails on Native peoples

  • New goods (iron tools and pots, liquor, guns, horses)
  • Disease
  • Displacement

Students will be able to explain the development of transportation from the historic Trails to modern travel.

  • River travel
  • Wagons and horses, oxen, or mules
  • Railroads
  • Lincoln Highway
  • Interstate

Students should understand the significance of "jump-off" points: the string of Missouri River towns between Kansas City and Council Bluffs that usually originated as points of interaction between Euro-Americans and Native Americans through fur-trading posts and military forts.

Transition: first encounters with fur-traders and Native Americans

Supply: wagons, flour, bacon, horses/mules/oxen, guide books

Freight: point to connect Oregon, California, Utah with the East and supply goods to military forts.

ON-SITE ACTIVITIES:

At the entrance to the Lied Historical Building is the Western Relief Silhouette, a polished granite sculpture detailing the elevation faced by the emigrants between the Mississippi River and California. The Path of Names leading to the front door is made of granite blocks. Each block has the name of an emigrant that made the journey or the Indian Nations the trails traveled through.

On the floor of the entrance rotunda is a stone compass showing the importance of direction to the early travelers. Also notice the two postcard displays from travelers who have made a modern journey west. There are two main educational areas: the exhibit hall and the theatre. In addition, an important aspect in interpreting the trails experience are the walking trails to the Missouri River. It is best to divide larger classes into groups of 15 or less.

The Exhibit Hall: A variety of different "search and find" activities are available for students based on their respective ages. There are also listening devices describing the exhibit hall for the visually impaired.

The exhibit hall is divided into four areas:

Trails Today: this large map of the United States shows the western trails in relation to our modern system of interstates.

Time Sweep: covers the expansion of the United States from the 1780s to present.

People and their Experiences: these displays are enhanced by the three-dimensional aluminum and oil paint sculptures designed by Timothy Woodman. The sculptures include homesteaders, railroad workers, traders, Native Americans, and ferryman and interpret life during the nineteenth century movement West.

Trips Across: Explores sites and experiences along the four trails from their point of departure to their final destination. The videos and photographs by Greg MacGregor document the trails as they look today. Many modern roads are built on top of the trails since these were most often the easiest routes. In addition, there are postcards displayed showing sites along the trails and the experiences of people in the West.

The Theater:

The film shown in our theater was directed by John Allen and is entitled " . . . and there we wandered, sometimes west." It follows a family traveling from Wisconsin to Oregon in 1996 and compares this with travel in the mid-1800s. In 1997, the movie received a silver award at the Charleston Film Festival in South Carolina.

The purpose of this presentation is to compare and contrast the mythical view of the westward movement and accurate historic accounts of the overland journey. Segments of the film focus on contemporary travel on the interstates and explore why people travel: vacation, movement, and work. This portion of the presentation connects our present with our past. The movie is close-captioned and there are listening devices available for the visually impaired.

Walking Trails:

A sidewalk leads from the Lied Historical Building to the top of the Sieck Levee where there is an interpretative panel. From the top of the levee, a crushed asphalt trail leads west to the banks of the Missouri River just over a half mile away. The trail passes through stretches of prairie grasses and cattails with stands of cottonwood and willow, typical wetland environment of the Missouri River’s floodplain. Our Sauganash Pond is named after a Chief of an important village of Potawatomi, Chippewa, and Ottawa. The thick mud, mosquitoes, sand burrs, and tall grasses were daily tribulations faced by emigrants while they waited to "jump off" on the trails west. In addition, there is a paved bicycle trail that runs east from the parking lot a mile to South 24th Street then another two and a half miles to Lake Manawa State Park.

TRAIL GLOSSARY:

Words and phrases every emigrant should know.

Barter: To trade by exchanging one commodity for another.

Bison: North American Buffalo. Called Tatonka by many Native Peoples who relied on the animal for food, clothing, and utensils.

Buffalo Chips: Dried buffalo dung that was gathered on the treeless plains for fuel.

Cholera: A deadly disease that was common along the western trails during the 19th century. The disease was highly contagious and was spread through contaminated drinking water. Most people died after they caught it, some within 24 hours.

Columbia River: Flows from British Columbia, Canada south through the State of Washington until turning west to the Pacific Ocean at the Oregon border.

Continental Divide: A divide separating streams that flow west towards the Pacific Ocean or east towards the Atlantic.

Constitution: A document drawn prior to the departure of an emigrant party. They were designed to regulate, conduct, and set rules the party would abide by on the trails. They usually didn’t work.

Corral: Circling of wagons at night to provide an enclosure for protection and to prevent stock from scattering. Ropes or chains were often tied between wagons to complete the enclosure.

Emigrant: A person leaving one area of a country to move to another, such as emigrants on the Oregon Trail leaving the Midwest for the coast.

Ferry: A boat used to get across rivers. Sometimes they were so small that they could only carry one wagon at a time. Others were large enough to transport several wagons or even railroad cars. Ferries were usually powered by oars, by attaching a rope on the opposite shore and pulling it across, or by steam. By 1852 there were three ferries across the Missouri at Council Bluffs.

Fort Kearny: A United States military fort along the Platte River in what is now central Nebraska. It was near here that the trails from the different jump off towns intersected.

Frontier: A transition area located between settled country and what was considered wilderness.

Gold Fever: A blind desire to discover gold that caused the Gold Rush of 1849 to California.

Gold Rush: Large scale migration of prospectors to the gold fields. The California Gold Rush was followed by later Gold Rushes to Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, and Alaska.

Guidebook: Publications that gave advice to emigrants as to provision and equipment needed for the journey and the best routes to follow. Some of these guidebooks gave bad or misleading advice.

Homestead Act: A government program that gave 160 acres of public land to people who would settle on the land and improve it for five years. This encouraged many more people to move west.

Independence Rock: A natural rock formation in southwest Wyoming. Emigrants believed that if they reached that point by the 4th of July they would get through the mountains before it snowed.

Indian Territory: The land west of the Mississippi River that was set aside as a permanent homeland for Native Americans during the 1830s. This land was diminished over time; what remained became the state of Oklahoma in 1907.

Jumping off (to Jump Off): To leave the civilized world on a 2,000 mile journey on the trails. Timing was very important since leaving too early might mean there would not be enough grass and leaving too late might mean getting stranded by snow in the mountains. A number of "Jump Off" towns appeared along the Missouri River where most emigrants bought their supplies, formed into companies, and were ferried across the Missouri River.

Keelboat: a large boat used on rivers with a deckhouse and area for storage. The boat was usually powered by oars although some also had sails. Most often though, to get the boat upriver the crew attached a long rope and pulled it behind them while walking along the shore.

Laying over (to lay over): To remain in camp for a day. Sometimes travelers laid over because of deaths, births, or because it was Sunday. When laying over, emigrants usually repaired wagons, did laundry, or just rested.

Louisiana Territory: The area between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Originally claimed in 1682 by Robert Cavalier de La Salle for the King of France, the land later became part of the Spanish Empire and was then returned to France. Shortly afterwards in 1804, American President Thomas Jefferson negotiated the purchase of Louisiana from the French. What was once Louisiana Territory now includes the states of Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, and parts of Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Oklahoma.

Manifest Destiny: A common belief in the 19th century that the United States of America was destined by divine will to control North America from ocean to ocean.

Nooning It (To Noon): To stop for a noon meal that was almost always eaten cold. Parties stopped for about an hour and rested for their afternoon march.

Northwest Passage: The name given to a mythical water route once believed to exist in North America. This route was thought to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by different rivers and would be a "short cut" between Europe and Asia.

Oregon Fever: The desire to migrate to the Oregon Territory during the mid-19th century. The Fever was caused by Oregon’s rich soil and healthful climate as well as poor economic conditions in the United States.

Party: A group of emigrants traveling together on the trails, often held together by a constitution.

Provisions: The food and food preparation equipment carried in the wagon, usually the most important part of the cargo.

Rendezvous: An annual meeting of Native Americans and fur-traders where goods and furs were exchanged. Most often these meetings took place in the Rocky Mountains.

Reservations: Territory that was "reserved" for the various Indian Nations and where they were moved, oftentimes against their will.

Scurvy: A disease, sometimes called "black leg," caused by the lack of vitamin C. Someone afflicted with scurvy suffered tooth loss, weakness, and even death.

South Pass: An area in southwest Wyoming where emigrant parties crossed the continental divide without having to climb over the mountains.

Smallpox: A disease that was brought to North America by Europeans. Native Americans had no immunity to it, and it killed thousands of them. Even those that survived were usually scarred for life.

Team: Two draft animals hitched together to pull a wagon. Most emigrant wagons required two teams or four animals, usually oxen.

Train: The group of wagons traveling together on the trails.

Transcontinental: Extending across a continent.

Turnarounds: Emigrants who "turned around" for various reasons to return home. Sometimes called "Go backs."

Viameter: A crude odometer that used gears to count wagon wheel revolutions and estimate mileage.

History Through Their Eyes: Below are brief descriptions of what people encountered near the Missouri River on their way West. Compare their experiences with yours today. Also notice how much the spelling and grammar are much different than today’s.

Joseph Whitehouse 1804: "This morning we embarked early & proceeded on, in Order to find a place suitable to take an observation, we passed a creek, lying on the North side of the River, called Musketo Creek, we landed, and clared a place for encamping. we pitched our Tents & built a Bowrey."

William Kilgore 1850: "To Kegs 5 miles, to Cartersville Eight miles. Here we have Encamped. This 3 miles from Kanesville, the Mormon town or what is known as the Council Bluffs. Kanesville has about 350 houses principally of logs. A great rush of Emegration at this place at this time. Provisions & grain verry high & no Steam Boats running to this place as I expected, only been two Boats up this Season. Some Smallpox here among the emegrants."

James S. Cowden 1853: "We arrived at Kanesville the 7th day of May, found it quite a lively place at this time of year. Several firms having large stocks of groceries and provisions to supply the California emigration demand, and as there is about five thousand persons camped within two or three miles of town it will require quite a stock to supply them all. We remained here several days; and while here saw a man hung by a mob, the first of the Kind I ever saw."

Clarissa Elvira Shipley 1864: "Pulled into the outskirts of Council Bluffs – camped and will stay here the rest of the day and night. The menfolk will get our supply of provisions that we will need on our journey for ourselves and horses. Arvilla is up today, and will be all right in a few days with care. Here we saw our first Indians. They came to our camp while the men were gone. I found out they were friendly ones. That made no difference then, for to be on the safe side of them I had given them plenty of food to eat, and they left us unharmed."

W.F. Rae 1870: "On arriving at Council Bluffs, we found omnibuses in waiting at the station. The morning was cold and raw. But a small proportion of the passengers could get inside seats, the remainder having the option of either sitting on the roof among the luggage, or else being left behind…Through deep ruts in the mud the omnibus was slowly drawn by four horses to the river’s bank, and thence on to the deck of a flat-bottomed steamer."

POST-VISIT ACTIVITIES/DISCUSSION:

Imagine you are getting ready to set out on a six-month journey 2,000 miles across the continent. What do you think you’d take with you? What possessions could you not live without and what would you leave behind? Remember, your wagon is only four feet wide by 11 feet long. Map that out on the floor with tape and see how much you could fit inside.

Now pretend you are a ‘49’r on your way to California to find gold. Half way across the mountains, your wagon breaks down. You can only carry five of the following ten items the rest of the way. Which ones would you take and why?

  • flour 
  • coffee
  • extra pair of clothes 
  • vegetable seeds
  • diary 
  • rifle
  • medicine 
  • bacon
  • shovel 
  • pickaxe

Would your answers be any different if you were a farmer going to Oregon?

Imagine you are a Pawnee Indian hunting along the Platte River. One spring, an emigrant wagon train comes through and sets up camp close to your village. What would you do? How do you think you would communicate, if you even chose to do so?

Today, we know about people’s experiences on the trails because many of them wrote down what they saw in journals and diaries. Start your own diary and record what significant events you see around you and the places you go.

Imagine what your neighborhood looked like during the 19th century. Who do you think lived there? How do you think they lived? What foods did they eat? What clothes did they wear? What did they do for fun?

Visit other historic sites in the area. See how they relate to the western trails and how the trails evolved into our modern system of railroads and interstates. Some places in Council Bluffs are: the Kanesville Tabernacle, the Lewis and Clark Monument, the Historic Dodge House, the Railswest Railroad Museum, and America’s oldest Dairy Queen at 17th and Broadway. Sites in and near Omaha include the Karl Bodmer paintings at the Joselyn Art Museum, the Mormon Trail Center at Winter Quarters, Fort Atkinson, the Durham Western Heritage Museum, and the General George Crook House.  

YOU & HISTORY

When you get home, try and learn more about your own family’s history. How did your family end up where they now live. Were they once homesteaders? Railroad workers? Displaced Native Americans? Freed Slaves? How did you get to where you are today? Remember, the history of America is not about forgotten strangers in a book; everyone has an impact on history.

Recipe for Pemmican: This was the favored food for fur-traders and Indians who had to travel over long distances since it was easy to carry and kept for long periods of time without spoiling.

Buffalo meat was cut into thin strips and hung up to dry. Then, the dried meat was pounded into a paste and was usually mixed with berries like chokecherries or with maple syrup. This mixture was then packed tightly into a bag or cleaned buffalo intestines. Melted fat was poured over the mixture and allowed to cool. To eat, the pemmican would be warmed up until the fat melted, but it could also be eaten cold.

RESOURCES:

Bennett, Richard. And Should We Die: Mormons at the Missouri, 1846-1852. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman and London, 1987.

Botkin, Daniel. Our Natural History: The Lessons of Lewis and Clark. Perigree: USA, 1995.

Covered Wagon Women: Diaries and Letters From the Western Trails, 1864-1868. Edited and compiled by Kenneth Holmes. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 1999.

Franzwa, Gregory. The Lincoln Highway: Iowa. Patrice Press: Tucson, 1995.

The Oregon Trail Revisited. Patrice Press: Tucson, 1997.

Hanson, James and Kathryn Wilson. The Buckskinner’s Cook Book. Fur Press: Crawford, NE. 1979.

Iowa Heritage Illlustrated. Winter 1997.

Jackson, Donald. Voyages of the Steamboat Yellowstone. Tickner and Fields: New York, 1985.

Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Volume 11. Edited Gary Moulton. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 1997.

Kimball, Stanley. Discovering Mormon Trails: New York to California 1831-1868. Deseret Book Company: Salt Lake City, 1979.

Klein, Maury. Union Pacific: Birth of a Railroad 1862-1893. Doubleday and Company: New York, 1987.

Mattes, Merrill. The Great Platte River Road.

Parkman, Francis. The Oregon Trail. Reprint 1991: Library of America.

Rohrbough, Malcolm. Days of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the American Nation. University of California Press: Berkely, 1997.

Stegner, Wallace. The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln, 1992.

Stewart, George. The California Trail. McGraw and Hill: New York, 1962.

Unruh, John Junior. The Plains Across. University of Illinois Press: Urbana, 1979.

Wyman, Walker DeMarquis. The Missouri River Towns in the Westward Movement. Thesis: University of Iowa, 1935.

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