Wagon Trains and Steamboats

By Reeves Barr, Maggie Ward, Carrie Wilson, Macey Sutherland,

and Mary Conly Hammons

The Wagon Each wagon cost approximately $400 The whole trip cost about $1000 The wagon’s travels close to 2 mph and were

pulled by horses, oxen, or mule. The average trip took up to 5-6 weeks, which was

around 2000 miles. Made of wood, water proofed canvas, and iron The canvas was linseed with oil stretched over

hooped shape slats. Iron was sparingly used because it would weigh

too much. Only children and elders rode inside of the wagon;

others walked or rode horseback.

The Wagon Trains

The Covered Wagon Train in Western Expansion

In 1840 John Bidwell established the Western Emigration Society

Planned to go from Missouri River to California

Tom Fitzpatrick lead the caravan

In 1862 the Homesteads Act was passed

The Act said that a family could settle on 160 acres and live there for five years at the end of five years they were granted the land

Popular trails of Western Expansion

Before Steamboats Before the invention of steamboats,

in order to get goods south, people had to send rafts or small flat boats down the Mississippi.

The boats would then be sold as fire wood unless they had a rudder they could then make the trek back upstream.

Steamboats 1787 started the steamboat era in America on

the Delaware River by John Fitch. They transported sugar, cotton, passengers,

and other important cargo. Robert Fulton would come to be known as the

“father of steam navigation” because he was recognized for having made the steamboat a economic success.

Steamboats traveled on canals that reached all over the nation to the major manufacturing and trading posts.

Steamboats

Early designs of the steamboat

Sources http://www.saveyourheritage.com/im

ages/wagon_train1862.jpg http://www.lovelockmotels.com/Imag

es/coveredwagon.jpg http://simplymarvelous.files.wordpre

ss.com/2008/05/wagon_train-2.jpg http://www.cinemaweb.com/silentfilm

/bookshelf/28_rs_4.jpg http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk

/WWwagontrain.htm http://inventors.about.com/library/inv

entors/blsteamship.htm http://qwickstep.com/search/steamb

oating.html http://www.sparknotes.com/history/a

merican/westwardexpansion/section5.rhtml