Allison Lassieur - Westward Expansion: An Interactive History Adventure

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YOU are living in America in the age of westward expansion. Settlers are pushing the border of the United States farther and farther west. Will you join them?

In this book, youll explore how the choices people made meant the difference between life and death. The events youll experience happened to real people.

Chapter One sets the scene. Then you choose which path to read. Follow the links at the bottom of each page as you read the stories. The decisions you make will change your outcome. After you finish one path, go back and read the others for new perspectives and more adventures. Use your device's back buttons or page navigation to jump back to your last choice.

YOU CHOOSE the path you take through history.

The West. The word sends a thrill through you. For some, the West is a place to search for gold and strike it rich. Others hunger for adventure in a wild and untamed place.

It is the mid-1800s, and an idea called grips the country. Thats a big name for a big idea. Americans believe that the United States is meant to reach from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. And nothing, not even the American Indians who already live there, can or will get in their way.

Americans felt it was their right to settle in the West, even though American Indians already lived there.

It isnt a new idea. Back in 1803, President Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase. This huge section of land stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. It doubled the size of the United States.

Soon, Americans took their first steps to explore the West. They brought back tales of a wild, rich land filled with promises.

Meanwhile, the U.S. population grew to more than 23 million people. Now, the East is crowded. Every day, Americans pack their wagons and move to the wide-open land of the West.

Americans built towns and railroads as they moved west.

But Americans arent the first people to live in the West. American Indians have lived there for hundreds of years. Now, they must share their hunting lands with white settlers. Except most settlers dont seem interested in sharing. Instead, they are taking the land away from the Indian tribes. They expect the Indians to live closer together in smaller areas.

Manifest Destiny affects everyone living during this time. Whether you join it or fight it, the shape of the United States is changing. Now is your chance to make your mark. What will you do?

It is early March 1848. You and your family have sold everything but your clothes, a wagon, some oxen, and the cast-iron stove. You have said good-bye to your friends and neighbors. Mother and Father ride up front. You, your brother, and your sister climb into the wagon bed.

You are leaving your small Ohio farm behind and going west. Father is excited about the free land in the unsettled West. Any married person can claim 640 acres for free in Oregon Country. Thats twice as much land as you own now, and no neighbors to crowd you!

Families loaded as much as possible into their wagons before heading west.

The three-week trip to Independence, Missouri, is an easy one. Independence is the jumping off place for most pioneers as they begin the long trip west. Youve never seen such a busy town. You can barely think over the clatter of wagons and the shouts of hundreds of people rushing through the streets.

You and Father go to one of the many stores in Independence to buy supplies. Ill need flour, bacon, coffee, sugar, and salt, Father says to the man standing behind the long wooden counter. You leave the store with almost 1,000 pounds of food.

Father parks the wagon outside town. Each day, more and more people arrive. The prairie is packed with pioneers and their wagons. Everyone is waiting for the grass to grow long enough for the animals to graze along the trail.

In late April, the grass is long and green. You can finally head west! You load the wagon and climb in. Father cracks the whip, and you follow the wagon train onto the trail.

The wagon is packed with food, the stove, and other supplies. The oxen plod slowly along as they pull the heavy load. You travel about 15 miles a day. It soon becomes clear that the wagon is too heavy. Its too much for the oxen, Father says.

Other families begin dumping extra supplies. But Mother worries about running out of food. I dont want my family to starve! she cries.

Well still need to lighten the load somehow, Father says.

You and your brother and sister get out of the wagon. We can walk, you offer. Theres no need for the oxen to pull our weight too.

Father nods. Well give that a try, he says.

Walking instead of riding in the wagon lessens the load, but it doesnt solve the problem. The farther west you travel, the rockier the trail becomes. Father worries the heavy wagon wont survive the rough road. The oxen are exhausted. We could break a wheel or an axle, Father says. Im sorry, but we need to dump something.

Wagon trains usually traveled single file along the Oregon Trail.

We can buy more food when we get to the next fort, you suggest. You throw out several pounds of bacon and flour. Father unloads the cast-iron stove. Mother cries as you leave it behind. Cast-off furniture and supplies litter the trail.

You continue west, following the Platte River across the plains. The river is wide but shallow. The water is thick with mud. Its too thick to drink and too thin to plow, Father says.

Days fall into a pattern. Each morning, you eat breakfast, repack the wagon, and head out on the trail. After several hours, you stop for a lunch of cold beans and bacon before moving on. At suppertime, you stop and circle the wagons for the night. Your mother serves a hot meal of boiled rice with dried beef. After supper, you tell stories and sing songs around the campfire. You go to bed by 9:00 in the evening. Your bed is only a blanket on the hard ground, but you are too worn out to care.