University:
Felician University
Course:
HIST-110 | World Geography and Culture
Academic year:

2023
Views:

211

Pages:

12
Author:

StellarStrategist

The route across Indian Territory would later be called The California Road. It ended in Santa Fe, and travelers then picked up the Gila Trail. An alternate route to California went through Tahlequah and was known as the Cherokee Trail. The Cherokee Trail started in Arkansas, but turned northwest out of Indian Territory, crossed the central Rockies, and ended in Sacramento. It was cool in the summer, but its snowstorms would have been deadly in the winter. Travel by Clipper ship around South America took a year, but travel overland could be done in four to six months. Capt. Randolph Marcy wrote the handbook The Prairie Traveler for people heading to California. He recommended routes and items that should be taken; wagons should be sturdy enough to withstand the weather; and oxen, or large cattle, were better suited to pulling wagons than horses or mules. He detailed a long list of supplies like flour, coffee, beans, and rice, as well as citric acid and laxatives. Plans for The Transcontinental Railroad originally proposed a route through Indian Territory. The Gadsden route would have avoided most of the Rocky Mountains. A Nebraska-to-California route was chosen instead because the Northern abolitionist states did not want such a valuable asset controlled by Slave states. Butterfield stagecoaches took mail (and passengers) to California over the Texas Road and the Gila Trail. American artist Frederic Remington created dozens of paintings depicting the journey through the “Wild West.” In 1860, the Pony Express proved to be an even faster way to deliver the mail. Carriers rode on horseback from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. The service would end abruptly after just 18 months. A few years later, the railroads would take over delivery of the mail. Not even a hundred years old, the young nation would soon be involved in a horrific war with destructive consequences, especially for the peoples of Indian Territory.