Women On Emigrant Trails

During the era of the western emigrant trails, 1841–1869, an estimated five hundred thousand people traveled over a complex system of overland trails to western destinations, seeking a better life, economic opportunities, and religious freedom. The trails era is characterized by a succession of migrations, beginning with agricultural migration to the Pacific Northwest, followed by the Mormon migration to Utah, and finally gold rushes to California, Colorado, and Idaho-Montana. Each decade of the period exhibited distinct characteristics as the various types of migrations meshed and flowed together.

The proportion of men, women, and children varied greatly with the type of migration. Men dominated the mineral migrations (at least 80 percent and at times 95 percent), whereas a more balanced ratio of men to women characterized agricultural migrations. Agricultural emigrants to the Pacific Northwest intended to settle on farms and build communities patterned on those they left behind. Nearly half of all agricultural overlanders traveled in parties based on kinship. In most cases this was an extended family. Women composed 15 to 20 percent of all travelers, and children composed an even higher percentage. Mormon settlement was a unique and distinct type of agricultural migration. While the Mormons went to develop available land, however difficult, they were interested in creating a new and different society, separate from the American mainstream. In the ensuing Mormon migration, the proportion of women and children rose dramatically.

The gold rushes—California, 1849–1852; Colorado, 1859–1862; and Idaho-Montana, 1863–1866—contrasted significantly with agricultural migration. Gold rush emigrants traveled west for the economic opportunities in the goldfields. In contrast to the extended families that were the basis for agricultural migration, gold rushers tended to travel alone, in single family units, or with acquaintances. Many intended to return home once they accumulated enough money, but others went to take advantage of commercial or professional opportunities in the mining camps and towns. Women made up only 5 to 10 percent of travelers in the gold rushes. Despite the greater proportion of men traveling to the mines during the peak gold rush years, the absolute number of families on the trails remained about the same throughout the emigrant trails era. Taking into account the fluctuations in the types of migration, women composed 15 percent of the total migration for the entire period; this amounted to seventy-five thousand women.

The diaries and journals written during overland journeys reveal that women had a wide range of experiences on the trail. The kind of experience and the degree of comfort on the journey for an individual woman depended on physical, social, and personal factors. Much of the trail experience was determined by physical factors such as the natural environment, material culture, available resources, and the woman's health and fitness. A woman's experience was also shaped by the degree of support she received from her social network of family, in-laws, and friends. A significant factor was her personality type, or the way [Page 689]she viewed and interacted with her world. As a result, some women experienced the journey as unrelenting hardship and grief, others as easy and pleasant, but for most it was somewhere in between. Even for those in the middle range, some certainly experienced more difficulties, while others had an easier journey.

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