The following article was written by Kristin Keck, a Teen Associate at the Manitowoc Public Library.
You have to understand up front: I’ve always been a fantasy, sci-fi kind of girl. My favorite books include the Chronicles of Narnia, the Dragonriders of Pern, Ender’s Game and Barry Longyear’s Infinity Hold. I watch Star Trek on repeat and I’m a Doctor Who fan from way back when there were only five Doctors.
To all my friends, that’s who I am. I know the Three Laws of Robotics and the coordinates of Gallifrey. And I keep very quiet about my guilty pleasure—Westerns.
I watch The Lone Ranger and Bonanza and Maverick and—oh, the shame!—The Rifleman. The Wild Wild West I can rationalize as a historical The Man from U.N.C.L.E, and Zorro is the OG Batman, but there really was no defending my absolute favorite, The Big Valley. It was just cattle drives and railroad barons and snakebites from top to bottom.
So, in high school, was I a secret Oregon Trial fan, sneaking away from classes to die of dysentery somewhere between Fort Laramie and Independence Rock?
Well, no. My high school didn’t go in for educational computer games much and the ones we did have focused on typing skills. I didn’t get a chance to break a wagon wheel until much later, after college. The original Oregon Trail had disappeared into a dust storm by then, green pixels and all, but the free version was available and I could finally lose half my party to typhoid.
Now that I have the chance to offer a life-sized version of the classic game as a program, you had better believe we’re going to hitch up some metaphorical oxen and set out from (a picture of) Westport, Missouri, on an adventure across the plains. Teen explorers can gather their parties and strike out on Thursday, November 13, at 6 PM in the Balkansky Community Room. Get more information at Teen Hang-out: On the Table – Life-sized Oregon Trail on the Library website. Hats and boots are encouraged, but not required. If parents want to fill out a party, they are welcome. It’s not just dangerous to go alone—it’s impossible.*
We’re not going completely life-sized, of course. The Oregon Trail runs from Westport to the Willamette Valley in Oregon, some 2,170 miles. It took the wagons 4 to 6 months, traveling 12 to 15 miles a day, to get to Oregon. We don’t have that kind of time or budget.
It doesn’t sound like the trail was a barrel of laughs, either. Of the 350,000 to 500,000 emigrants that traveled west, an estimated 20,000 to 30,000—6 to 10 percent—died, mostly of diseases like cholera and measles and, yes, dysentery. Some historians reckon that, if evenly spaced along the length of the Oregon Trail, there would be a grave every 50 yards from Missouri to Oregon City. The graves are still there, along preserved portions of the wheel ruts and ground beaten flat with many hooves and feet hoping for a new start and a new home.
So, let’s set off into the wilderness, rolling the Big Foam Dice™ to discover our fates. It’s not exactly Little House on the Prairie out there!
*Dangers could include fictional drowning, snakebite, dysentery, typhoid fever, cholera, measles, broken limbs, broken wheels, hypothermia, dehydration, robbery, and starvation. The Library is not responsible for any/all fictional deaths.