Oregon Trail trash
Wagon-hauling oxen felt the effects of the Oregon Trail as much as the humans. While the challenges of the trail increased, the animals became weaker from lack of food and water. Their load became more of a burden. To help the oxen, the pioneers would make the wagon as light as possible. They threw out all but essential items needed for the rest of the Trail and to set up a new life in Oregon or California. This left a lot of trash along the Trail. Along with tossed-out books, clothes, furniture, and other personal possessions, it was common to find dead draft animals, wagon parts, and quickie burial mounds of dead emigrants. 8-year-old Patty Reed of the infamous Donner party rescued her doll from one of these supply purges in the Great Salt Lake Desert, becoming one of the few artifacts and non-essential personal possessions from the Donner Party.