You Have Died of Dysentery: How Emotions Drove Settlers on the Oregon Trail
Major
Biology
Submission Type
Poster
Area of Study or Work
History
Faculty Advisor
Alyssa Culp
Location
CNS Atrium
Start Date
4-11-2026 11:15 AM
End Date
4-11-2026 12:30 PM
Abstract
In 1971, the educational game The Oregon Trail introduced generations of American schoolchildren to westward migration, a world reduced to resource management and random tragedy. Players chose their supplies, forded rivers, and watched family members die of dysentery with little more than a text notification. The game was so popular in American classrooms that for many people it became the primary lens through which they understood overland migration, embedding a particular version of the trail into cultural memory. Yes, the trail was dangerous, but could be navigated through careful decision making. Emotion was beside the point. What the game could not simulate was the psychological weight of the journey itself, the fear that set in before a family ever left home, the grief of burying someone on the plains, and the disorientation of realizing the West looked nothing like what they expected. This project examines the emotional and perceptual experiences of westward migration between 1840 and 1870. Promotional materials, guidebooks, and diaries containing the personal experiences of those traveling the trail shaped how settlers understood the West before they even set foot on the trail. They helped construct specific perceptions of danger including the threat of disease and the presence of Native Americans. Fear and perception alone do not tell the whole story. By recovering the emotional voices within these documents, this research highlights the psychological cost of the overland journey that has been consistently overlooked. Settlers endured extraordinary hardship in pursuit of something deeply personal, and understanding the desire that drove them westward is just as essential as understanding what they feared.
You Have Died of Dysentery: How Emotions Drove Settlers on the Oregon Trail
CNS Atrium
In 1971, the educational game The Oregon Trail introduced generations of American schoolchildren to westward migration, a world reduced to resource management and random tragedy. Players chose their supplies, forded rivers, and watched family members die of dysentery with little more than a text notification. The game was so popular in American classrooms that for many people it became the primary lens through which they understood overland migration, embedding a particular version of the trail into cultural memory. Yes, the trail was dangerous, but could be navigated through careful decision making. Emotion was beside the point. What the game could not simulate was the psychological weight of the journey itself, the fear that set in before a family ever left home, the grief of burying someone on the plains, and the disorientation of realizing the West looked nothing like what they expected. This project examines the emotional and perceptual experiences of westward migration between 1840 and 1870. Promotional materials, guidebooks, and diaries containing the personal experiences of those traveling the trail shaped how settlers understood the West before they even set foot on the trail. They helped construct specific perceptions of danger including the threat of disease and the presence of Native Americans. Fear and perception alone do not tell the whole story. By recovering the emotional voices within these documents, this research highlights the psychological cost of the overland journey that has been consistently overlooked. Settlers endured extraordinary hardship in pursuit of something deeply personal, and understanding the desire that drove them westward is just as essential as understanding what they feared.