West Side Diary Story

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West Side Diary Story’s Diary entry 1: on May I left the Missouri river for our long journey across the plains. The '49er's averaged about 15 days; during the years before and after 1849, the figure was reduced. Probably most fell within a time frame of a week to 10 days. I knew looking for gold was a big shot and I also knew that if you got lucky you’re a millionaire and if you don’t you have lost a lot of money and a bunch of time. I am on my way right now on my oxen that oxen were much preferred, with horses and mules considerably less favored to make the general observation that more than half of all over landers’ wagons were pulled by oxen, The cost of a yoke of oxen during the last half of the 1840s varied from a low of $25 to a high of $65. On my way I saw many things when natives wanted to attack it was quite frightening, being run over by wagon wheels was the most frequent cause of injury/death. With some frequency, both children and adults apparently slipped while getting out of a wagon and fell beneath the wheels. The third major source of dying was stampeding livestock. Diary Entry 2: I am a white and I am on my way right now to find some gold my chances are slim and I know it but I am very frightened that the natives will capture me, the time period 1840-1860,, which are probably low, indicate that 362 emigrants were killed by Indians and 426 Indians were killed by emigrants. This makes me very nervous knowing that natives in the past have actually killed whites. On my way I found that there were many rotten animals which I believe was buffalo there was sixty million buffalos before the whites came and took land. Food was scares and we have to stop early just to start a fire; it took two or three bushels of chips to heat a meal because chips burned so rapidly I was very sad that we could not move on faster. Wagons
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