Oregon Trail Brainstorms

Here are the unedited results of the three brainstorming sessions we did.

 

Class 1

Chimney Rock--people carve their names in it, and try to get theirs highest.  Woman falls to her death.

Steep hill--near the end of the trip--you put your oxen behind your wagon to slow it down.  Someone is dragged over a cactus.

A Doctor is called in the middle of the night to deliver a baby.

Riding down the Columbia River on a raft.

Native Americans attack.

Friendly interaction with Native Americans.

Courthouse/jailhouse rock jokes.

Fort Laramie--terrible food!  Snake bite!

Prairie fire.

Rabies attack.

 

Class 2

Man eats water hemlock by mistake for parsnips and dies.  Someone makes a speech at his funeral.

A hunter is accidentally shot.

A cholera victim observes his own funeral.

Whitman Mission--Native Americans attack in retaliation for measles epidemic.

Bear attack at Fort Vancouver.

Falling off the Barlow Toll Road.

Sager family saga.

The many uses for buffalo chips.

Relief party rescues wagon train trapped in the mountains.

Marriage (or birth?) on trail.

Deciding to go to Oregon--and HOW do we go?

Fort Bridger:  party arrives--no one is there.  Argument ensues.

Group goes (or decides to go) to California.

Native Americans stop wagon train, demand toll.  Do we pay?

Barlow discovers the pass over Mt. Hood.

Group arrives in Oregon.

Disaster crossing the Columbia River at the Dalles.

Laurel Hill--a rope breaks and a wagon runs away down the hill.

The many "firsts" at Fort Vancouver.

 

Class 3

Snake bite--what do we do?

Donner Party

Native Americans attack--from the point-of-view of the Native Americans.

Wagon train fords a river.

Wagon train that makes it to Oregon--do we go on to California or stay in Oregon?

Surviving a blizzard or extreme cold.

Surviving the desert--do we have enough water?

A family decides to go to Oregon in the first place.

 

NEXT:  APPENDIX 2--THE PLAY