Mountain Fever
"And as [the emigrants] got to thinner air they encountered a new malady, a prostrating seizure of nausea and violent headaches, frequently complicated by still another kind of dysentery. Bryant,…
Emigrant Deaths
"Gold fever unleashed a white tsunami across native lands, eroding emigrant-Indian relations and muddying heretofore friendly waters. Hordes of emigrant cattle stripped grass from river valleys. Emigrant campfires burned up sparse wood supplies.…
Reasons for Emigrating
"What made people head west in rising numbers, even before the days of gold? One important factor was disease. Midwestern farmers, especially those in the swampy bottomlands along the Missouri and Mississippi…
Cholera Along the Platte
"The swampy drainage of the Platte extended several hundred yards from the main river channels. The expanse of standing pools of brackish water and salty, alkaline mudflats often began just a few…
Caches Disguised as Graves
"In 1849 Capt. Stansbury found one marked grave which, 'instead of containing the mortal remains of a human being, had been a safe receptacle for divers casks of brandy.' J.G.…
Trailside Graves
"[E]migrants 'had a horror of being buried without a coffin,' but this dismal piece of furniture was too cumbersome to take along 'just in case.' While still within reach of…
Trailside Graveyards
"While isolated graves were the rule, there would be 'many places with 12 to 15 graves in a row,' and Ezra Meeker once counted 57 at one campground. Such clusters…
Changing Attitude Toward Cholera Victims
"While families might grieve, the attitude of emigrants generally toward their fallen associates underwent gradual change as they moved westward. If death occurred during the first few weeks out, as…
Cholera Symptoms and Treatment
"Although some who contracted the disease lingered for many days, it usually struck suddenly, and often the victim was dead within hours, usually after 'great agony.' Diarrhea was such a…
Cholera Numbers
"'The road from Independence to Fort Laramie is a graveyard,' McCollum wrote, and he put the number of burials at 1,500 to 2,000, which would be an overall mortality rate…
Spread of Cholera
"All of these complaints and illnesses of the Great Migration pale into insignificance, however, beside the great killer Asiatic cholera. Variously spelled in diaries colory, chollery, of coleramer, this virulent…
The Big Blue
"It was at the Big Blue, about ten days out of St. Joe, that the emigrants felt the first flick of the Elephant's tail. Here was a chance to repair…
Cholera in Independence, MO
"The Asiatic cholera brought along by steamboat passengers from St. Louis was particularly deadly around Independence, and graves multiplied. This, coupled with the rivalry of neighboring Westport and the advantages…
Disease and Death
"While the journey up the Platte River Road may have been a joy and tonic for some, far too often it was an ordeal in which, after running the gauntlet…
Marcus Whitman
"The next year, 1835, when the traders' great caravan under Fontenelle came west to the rendezvous, they brought two other famous men, Samuel Parker and the young Marcus Whitman, bot…