Comparing accounts: informational texts 4

Read the passage.

Five Things You May Not Know About the Oregon Trail

If you want to visit Oregon, how would you get there? Would you take a plane, a train, or a car? In the 1800s, pioneers traveled west in covered wagons using the Oregon Trail. The 2,000-mile trail began in Missouri and ran through six states. It took travelers about five months to make the trip. Most of them were determined to make new lives in the West.

Here are five things you may not know about the Oregon Trail:

Do you ever pack too much when you go on a trip? Many of the pioneers overpacked, too. A heavy wagon was hard for the oxen to pull. So many pioneers left extra supplies on the trail in order to make their wagons lighter.
The Oregon Trail didn’t have many trees. The pioneers used buffalo chips, dried buffalo dung, as fuel for their fires. In fact, some children played games with buffalo chips. They tossed them around like Frisbees.
Some pioneers wrote their names on stones along the Oregon Trail. Independence Rock in Wyoming is known as “The Register of the Desert”. It has thousands of names on it.
Native Americans rarely attacked pioneers on the Oregon Trail. Diseases, such as cholera, were one of the biggest threats. Bad weather and wagon accidents also made the trip unsafe.
The last wagon trains made their journey in the 1880s. However, tracks made by the wagons can still be seen today in six states.

What does the author want the reader to understand about pioneers on the Oregon Trail?

ELA isolated skill practice

Course: ELA isolated skill practice > Unit 3

Problem

Five Things You May Not Know About the Oregon Trail