How many miles would a typical wagon train travel per day? Wagons traveled between 10 and 20 miles per day, depending on weather, terrain, and other factors. Some wagon trains did not travel on Sunday while others did.
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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.
The length of the wagon trail from the Missouri River to Willamette Valley was about 2,000 miles (3,200 km). It normally took four to six months to traverse the length of the Oregon Trail with wagons pulled by oxen.
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.
The average wagon train traveled about 10-20 miles per day. Of course, this was dependent on weather, the difficult of the landscape, and unexpected obstacles along the way.
The wagon train is probably one of those images. What exactly was a wagon train? It was a group of covered wagons, usually around 100 of them. These carried people and their supplies to the West before there was a transcontinental railroad.
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.
When a family decided to join a wagon train, it often had to save money for three to five years before it could even begin the journey. The wagon cost around $400. The cost of the trip with supplies could be as much as $1,000.
These wagons typically would cost about $400 (approximately equivalent to $13,000 in 2022). The wagons had wooden hoops that went from one side to the other which were covered by a canvas top which would be waterproofed with linseed oil. The canvas protected the migrants and their possessions from weather and the sun.
The overland journey from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon or California meant a six-month trip across 2,000 miles of hard country. It was costly—as much as $1,000 for a family of four. That fee included a wagon at about $100.
What exactly was a wagon train? It was a group of covered wagons, usually around 100 of them. These carried people and their supplies to the West before there was a transcontinental railroad.
The End of the Oregon TrailBy 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.
Independence, Missouri, a frontier village of only a few hundred people poised on the edge of American civilization, was the principle jumping-off point for three of the western trails.