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Journal, Today we got to a river. There was a ferryman there and it cost$2.50 to cross the river. When mom gave him the money, he told us to park the wagon in front of the raft. Then he drove the wagon up on the raft. He had to steer it so the wheels would fit in the right spot. If he missed the tracks our wagon would fall in the river. When he parked it we started to cross the river. It was a little wavy so mom told me to stay away from the edge. …Chad Dear Journal, Fort Laramie was our last stop before the mountains. Most people tried to sell most of their things because if there were a lot of weight on the wagon in the mountains the wagon would tip over. But it is hard to trade at Fort Laramie because they are expensive. We sold most of our stuff that was heavy, but the stuff we couldn't sell we dumped on the side of the road. I' so glad we made it through the mountains safely. ….Andria Uncle Herby said that we ran out of water. We did not know what to do. Uncle Herby said that we had to find water. We had to look for fresh clean water. We finally reached a water hole. I was so happy. Uncle Herby gave us some water buckets and we filled them up. Uncle Herby said that we couldn't drink the water yet, because it might have germs. We had to boil the water over the fire. Finally the oxen weren't whining at night, and we got to drink. …Nichole Dear Journal, Today Uncle Herby said that we would be stopping at Fort Laramie because it is the last stop before the mountains. I can't wait until I get to carve my name into a rock. My sisters and I are going to race each other up to the top. When we went by the desert some people died of not having enough water and the dry heat. We are lucky that no one from our wagon party died. The part that I think is the most fun is when we go on the ferry. I just think it gets kind of boring waiting for the people in front of us to go. Once it took us three days. …Angela Dear Journal, Yesterday Uncle Herby and my sisters and I were walking in the mountains. The only problem was that we had to pass a river. The water was kind of cold and kind of deep. The way we made it to the other side of the river is that we caught a tree then made it touch the other side of the river and then we walked over it. Some of the wagons drown but not all of them, only a few. When we made it to the other side of the river we had to pass through deep ruts of rock. The animals could barely walk over them. The only good thing is that we did find a place for the oxen to eat grass and we were very safe. …Brenda Dear Journal, I would see the mountains from a few miles away. As we got closer I saw that it was muddy and steep. My family tried to think of a way to go on it without tipping or anything else. I saw that a wagon had already decided what they were going to do. An instant later I heard a scream. My friend Sally had fallen out of their wagon. There was a wagon that did not see her and ran over her. My dad stopped the wagon to see if she was all right, but she was dead. I was scared for my friend and my family. …Stacey Dear Journal, Crossing the river was very hard, especially the Columbia River. On the Columbia there were rapids, shallow water, and debris floating around. Most didn't dare cross the Columbia. They took the long way, but our family made it by rafting. We are almost to Oregon. ….Braeden
Dear Journal, Today we finally got to a river that was too dangerous to float the wagon or ford. We had to wait in line for three days to use the ferry. When we finally got to go on the ferry it cost $16. The man that was steering our wagon on put it with two other wagons. It was way too heavy for the raft to carry. The back of the ferry went under water and everyone ran to the front and then the front went under. Then everyone ran to the middle. When we got off everyone was releaved. …Brenna Trail Index: Archive
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Dear
Journal, It was hard to go up the mountains because the wagon would tip over and we would lose some supplies. It was hard because we flipped, but we were all right. The mountains were very vertical so it was hard to get up them. It was fun for me. I liked the ride up and down. My group was scared, but Aaron and me weren't. We thought it was fun. It was great except when we flipped. That part was not fun. ….Drew Dear Journal, We started up our first mountain today. It was very hard. If we made a wrong move the whole wagon would tip over. Some of the other wagons tipped over because they weren't careful. While we were going up we saw a rock. Everyone before us had signed his or her name. Lee stopped the wagon so we could sign it too. I signed Laura Smith 1839-1840. We made it to the top of the mountain and we locked our wagon to ropes on the way down. We lowered it all the way down. We rested at the bottom of that mountain, but I could see another right ahead of us. I can't wait till we reach Oregon. ….Lucie Dear Journal, My family and I had to go up a huge mountain on the Oregon Trail. We had to lighten our load because our wagon was too heavy. We didn't go up sideways because someone in our wagon train said we would tip over. It was a good thing we listened to them because another wagon train tipped when they went sideways. …Alexi Dear Journal, Tomorrow we plan to cross the Green River. We have been waiting in line for almost a day to cross the ferry. All day Ma has been muttering to Uncle John about how much it costs. We have to pay nearly $15. I think that is too much. "That price is outrageous," Ma told Uncle John at dinner. "We might as well sell one of our oxen!" "It will be worth it. We're almost to Oregon City and we can't stop now just because we don't want to pay to take a ferry, " Uncle John replied. I think it will be scary crossing the river. Uncle John said lots of people had died on it and I didn't want to be the next. Crossing the river is going to be frightening, but my sister MaryAnn is confident we'll make it. … Anna Dear Journal, I paid a toll of $3 to get on the ferry. The river was so deep the Indian man helped us over the river. We were so close. Then all of a sudden a man fell into the water. We saved him. Then we made it across the river. …Lucas Dear Journal, My family and I had to cross over a bad river, but when it was our turn the ferry had fallen apart. We had to cross on our own and we lost two people. They fell off the back. We also lost half of our stuff. All of our meat fell out. It was sad. …Zac
Dear Journal, We had a very hard time crossing the rivers because if we moved we would tip over and that's what happened. Some supplies were lost or stolen by people. Jake almost drowns because he didn't know how to swim. My brothers and I were scared that we would tip because the paddle man, Clark, said that we could and to stay in place. We were even more scared that we would when a wave came. We hope it never happens again. …Donny Trail Index 2002
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