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Sep 23, 2021 · Sarah Byrd, though only a child when she and her family traveled the Oregon Trail, remembered the panic that arose at her camp when they saw bison in the distance. “It was dusk, an' we'd gone into camp, when, all at once, 'way off in the distance we see a big cloud o' dust,” she said.
- Jacoby Bancroft
In the 1830s and 1840s, Americans living east of the Mississippi River began to hear about the Oregon country from missionaries. Beginning in 1843, wagon trains set out for Oregon each summer from settlements along the Missouri River.
WPA worker Sara Wrenn conducted an oral history interview with Mrs. Byrd in Portland, Oregon, on February 28, 1939. Since Mrs. Byrd herself admits that she was quite young during her overland journey, how reliable do you think her testimony is? View the entire interview with Sarah Byrd from American Life Histories, 1936-1940.
May 19, 2021 · Deaths on the Oregon-California Trail could come from disease, accident, starvation, misadventure, slaying, or madness. But whatever the method, the Oregon Trail, leading emigrants west from Missouri or Illinois through Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and eventually into Oregon, was a place of perishing.
One woman who traveled on the Oregon Trail shared her experience; her name is Sara Byrd. She arrived in Oregon from Iowa, to her, "I-O-WAY" in 1848. She was a small child and did not remember much, but she still recalled a lot of what it was like to travel along that trail.
ARRIVALS IN OREGON - 1853. It isn't always easy to find records of, or clues to, your ancestors who came overland to the West Coast, but there may be more resources available than you think. I've put together what I hope are some helpful suggestions on my webpage, "Finding Overland Trail Ancestors" (link above).
Oregon Trail pioneers pass through the sand hills, painting by William Henry Jackson On and on, we journeyed — averaging 15 miles a day over cactus, sagebrush, and hot sand.
