How long would it take a wagon train to go 2000 miles?

Typically, a wagon train would travel at around two miles an hour, which would only permit the train to average a little over ten miles a day. Therefore, the 2,000 mile journey from Missouri to California or Oregon would take about five to six months depending on weather or other difficulties.



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Most emigrants walked alongside instead, unless they were ill. Many settlers walked the full 2,000 miles of the trail. Wagon trains typically traveled 15 to 20 miles a day—less if they had to cross a mountain or a river.

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Travelers used grass or leaves or just plain dirt. Bark was also a paper substitute. It wasn't pretty, but no worse than many other realities pioneers faced on the emigrant trail.

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Surprisingly, considering how many wagons went West, very few faced attacks by the Indians. A well-led and disciplined train was more likely to get through without problems. The opposite was often true for small trains where discipline was lacking.

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Answer and Explanation: A wagon train could contain any number of wagons, although most averaged between ten and thirty families. There were some larger wagon trains that had up to 200 wagons traveling together. Many of these wagon trains had large numbers of sheep or cattle traveling with them as well.

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Some travelers continued to take wagons over the old trail as late as the 1920s. Why? Usually because they didn't have the money to buy train tickets to take their families west, or they had livestock that needed herding along, but sometimes just because they loved the old-timey adventure of it.

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In 1870 it took approximately seven days and cost as little as $65 for a ticket on the transcontinental line from New York to San Francisco; $136 for first class in a Pullman sleeping car; $110 for second class; and $65 for a space on a third- or “emigrant”-class bench.

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On this day in 1843, some 1,000 men, women, and children climbed aboard their wagons and steered their horses west out of the small town of Elm Grove, Missouri. The train comprised more than 100 wagons with a herd of 5,000 oxen and cattle trailing behind.

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Rough roads and wagons without springs made for a very bumpy ride, and wagons were filled with supplies which left little room for passengers. Generally, travelers only rode in wagons when too ill or tired to walk, and slept most nights in tents or bedrolls outside the wagon.

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The End of the Oregon Trail By 1890, the railroads had all but eliminated the need to journey thousands of miles in a covered wagon. Settlers from the east were more than happy to hop on a train and arrive in the West in one week instead of six months.

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