What did they do with the dead bodies on the Oregon Trail?
Burying the dead was a common part of Romano-British religion, and the dead were often provided with clothes, food and other objects for the afterlife. Once again, after an interval lasting for many centuries, objects made of gold and silver started to be buried in graves.
There were an estimated 300,000 pioneers that traveled the road which means approximately 15,000 were buried along the trail side. The state of Wyoming has records of those that are known. Some of the names on this list include family history and how they died.
Who was the oldest person on the Oregon Trail?
ten graves
The number of deaths which occurred in wagon train companies traveling to California is conservatively figured as 20,000 for the entire 2,000 miles of the Oregon/California Trail, or an average of ten graves per mile.
The journey west was difficult and sometimes deadly. About 10 percent of the Oregon Trail’s passengers died along the way. One of the biggest killers was disease, namely cholera, diphtheria, and dysentery. People also drowned at river crossings, fell under wagon wheels, and simply succumbed to exhaustion.
Are there still graves along the Oregon Trail?
Graves were usually shallow to save labor, resulting in bodies that were washed away or dragged away by animals. Suitable headstones that would withstand weather and time were a rarity. “Sometimes the grave was dug in the trail itself to conceal it from Indians,” Mr. Werner says.
