The Pioneering Spirit (trains, food, wealthy)

[HighlandLady]

Originally Posted by Floyd_Davidson

There are some very interesting perspectives in the stories about the Oregon Trail... that are distinctly not what most people today would expect.

For example, one of the major causes of death was accidental gun shot wounds. Because, despite what we tend to think our heritage is, the vast majority of Americans at that time had never handled a weapon. They had, way back then, the same thing we see today where people want to be the Great White Hunter they had read about in books.

Seems that on most Wagon Trains the same thing would happen the first several times they spotted a few buffalo; which was that all the men who could would grab a weapon and either ride or walk out to chase the buffalos in hopes of killing one! The number of accidental gunshot wounds at those times were very high.

Some years ago National Geographic produced a multi-part TV documentary. They had a historian (who if I recall happened to be a Pawnee Indian) who pointed out the perhaps this was just evolution working as expected. Then he flat stated that anyone who reached into the back of a moving wagon and pulled out a loaded long barreled weapon that goes off and kills them, is probably just too dumb to survive in the Oregon Territory anyway.

You are right, Floyd. Accidents and illnesses were the main cause of death on the Trail. Cholera and dysentery were prevalent in the trains. Children often rode on the tongues of the wagons and there were many deaths caused by them falling off and the wagon rolling right over the top of them. The Native Americans were more curious than anything...until the Bozeman Trail began and cut right through their lands...but that is another story.

[Woof]

Originally Posted by Floyd_Davidson

For example, one of the major causes of death was accidental gun shot wounds. Because, despite what we tend to think our heritage is, the vast majority of Americans at that time had never handled a weapon. They had, way back then, the same thing we see today where people want to be the Great White Hunter they had read about in books.
.

Sorry, I don't buy that one. Sounds to me like historical revisionism by gun control enthusiasts.

[karibear]

Originally Posted by Grannysroost

I do not even want to think of what would happen if the crap hit the fan, would be so scary, and there are lots that have been prepping for years, but when you have cities of people going crazy because life is not "normal," and they cannot function. Man-guy have often talked survival, especially in MN, because we have lived that way by choice often...What I fear is my kids, who poo-poo us as being whatever, ....they have no clue and have my grandbabies....

I don't particularly worry about my kids being able to survive nicely, but what does worry me is that one of them is living in NYC. Of all the places to be at the wrong time... well, I dunno. But she's not the squeamish, woe-is-me type, either. What worries me most about her being there is the prospect of global warming. It would definitely be a trap for most, but I do have confidence in her abilities. My son doesn't believe in that possibility at all, but then, nothing much would ever stop him, short of a bulldozer or a bullet, and he's ingenious enough to handle a dozer.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by Woof

Sorry, I don't buy that one. Sounds to me like historical revisionism by gun control enthusiasts.

What? You think urban residents along the eastern seaboard in the 1830's and 1840's where all packing guns, hunting for a living, or at the shooting range every day?

Most of them had never fired a gun in their lives. They had no reason to own one.

[Siouxcia]

Originally Posted by karfar

Are you serious???? I've had that set since I was little, I re-read them at least once a year PLUS I am now on season six renting the DVD's from Netlix. Oh yeah, I'm a Little House freak! My friend at one time tried buying a cup that was from the set of Little House for me...alas, he didn't bid high enough, but hey it's the thought that counts. Yeah, I guess you could say I'm in love w/that show.

I'm covering an ER 8 miles from Walnut Grove, MN.

[karfar]

Originally Posted by Siouxcia

I'm covering an ER 8 miles from Walnut Grove, MN.

Ooo, you must go visit! I still have to take a day trip to Pepin in the western part of WI, that's where Laura is from apparently. Highland, those pictures are very cool, I can't believe those ruts are so deep! And I'm still amazed that they are there to this day.

[arctichomesteader]

Originally Posted by Floyd_Davidson

What? You think urban residents along the eastern seaboard in the 1830's and 1840's where all packing guns, hunting for a living, or at the shooting range every day?

Most of them had never fired a gun in their lives. They had no reason to own one.

Males of adult age were required to own firearms for militia duty at that time under the Militia Act, and train for service. The park on the main road of this city was in fact used at that time for training purposes at set times each year. From what I've read of it, it turned into more of a big social gathering than what might be considered modern military training, but nonetheless, every adult male involved most definately fired their firearms while "training." At that time also, it was in fact quite common to carry firearms outside of militia training. Big cities got police forces in the 1840's but most places didn't. People were responsible for their own safety (and legally still are). Consider just slightly later (1870's through 90's) all the millions of inexpensive pocket revolvers made precisely for the average person to carry easily.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by arctichomesteader

Males of adult age were required to own firearms for militia duty at that time under the Militia Act, and train for service.

Might have been true in Vermont, but it certainly was not true for the rest of the country.

[arctichomesteader]

Originally Posted by Floyd_Davidson

Might have been true in Vermont, but it certainly was not true for the rest of the country.

Federal law. Militia Act of 1792.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by arctichomesteader

Federal law. Militia Act of 1792.

Which just proves my point.

First, there is no question that accidental gunshot wounds were one of if not the most common cause of death on the Oregon Trail. That is reported by virtually all sources and they only differ on whether cholera, other accidents, or gunshot was the most common.

So why such a high accident rate for guns? The simple fact is that most Americans in 1843, when the massive migration began, had virtually no experience with guns. The last war of any significance (and even that was fairly small) had been the War of 1812, fought by a very small professional army aided by larger numbers of state militia, it marked the end of significance for the two laws called the Militia Act of 1792.

By the 1840's most American experience with weapons amounted to seeing that old Revolutionary War relic musket on the mantel over the fireplace. It hadn't been fired more than a few times at most in the past 15-20 years, and nobody actually hunted or practiced military arts with it. The militia training, as you noted, had become a social event.

Here is a typical comment about guns on the Oregon Trail:

"William SHOTWELL became the first trail emigrant to die of an
accidental gun shot; such accidents became frequent among the
inexperienced and heavily armed travelers on the Oregon Trail."

Oregon Trail 1841 - 1843

The essential problem was the perceived need to have a firearm ready for immediate use, and a total lack of training in how to accomplish that. These were muzzle loading weapons, which necessarily had to be pre-loaded do the the time required to prepare one for use. They tended to store them laying horizontally,
cocked and ready, in a wagon. Typical accidents happened when a person reached into a wagon and pulled out such a gun, accidentally firing it. But sometimes it would just be someone moving things around in the wagon, and when the gun went off it killed whoever was innocently walking behind the wagon.

It should be noted too that the mortality rate at the peak of the migration was more than 10%. The death rate from gun accidents was extremely high. Compare that with how Hollywood has convinced everyone that Indians were a big problem, but in fact they were associated with perhaps only 300, maybe 0.1%, of deaths on the Oregon Trail over a 30 year period.