People perished traveling water that gave them sustenance, water that was such a precious commodity on the trail. The Oregon Trail has been called the longest cemetery in the United States, but these numbers don t include the Native Americans who died as a result of starvation or diseases brought by the pioneers. These people lived, they were photographed, they wrote journals, and they were written about. It s now in the literature that readers learn about their lives and the place where they met their fates. After driving the approximate route of the Oregon Trail and taking an ample amount of photographs, I look at place or setting in a much different manner.
Place has an impact on the actions of what is alive.
What is alive has an impact on place. My memories and my photographs led me to further my understanding of the Oregon Trail by reading more and more about the 2,000 mile-long place that was a multitude of places that each brought their own challenges. After seeing the vistas, landmarks, and living history museums, I would highly recommend that other readers embark on a journey to explore place. The West is a land of infinite horizons and unimaginable distances. But it was never empty.