12. Wagon Preparations to Head West Took More Than a Year
The trail was over 2,000 miles, and it would generally take anywhere from four to seven months for a wagon train to complete. The preparation a pioneer family would put in for their journey west would take more than a year. Often, a family had to sell their home long before they began the journey to pay for all the supplies the particular wagon would need. Sometimes the package included two carts for one family and the oxen that they would need to make the trip. About $1,000 would need to be saved per family for the journey.
The supplies for the trip would cost an average of $539.60. Some of the necessities included 200 pounds of flour, 100 pounds of bacon for each family member, beans, lard, coffee, rice, salt, biscuits, dried fruit, and sugar. On top of that, the pioneers had to sell their horses in order to buy oxen. Horses would not be strong enough to carry the wagon, which would often weigh as much as 2,500 pounds. So each cart would need about four to six oxen for the trip.