What Pioneers ate on the Oregon Trail

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Subtitles: Jose Mendoza | IG @worldagainstjose

#tastinghistory #oregontrail #pioneer

[ayrton]

" Yes honey. I had no intentions of partaking in the boy's actions, I went back to my tent and spent the day writing to you" - most believable boys night out text home

[TheOccupants]

There once was a Max with a knack,
For videos that featured hard tack,
He mentions the quip,
And then shows the clip,
And his viewers all say *KLACK KLACK*

[gabrielladavidson]

I live near the end of the trail; all over the place people STILL have the original covered wagons their families brought here 170 years ago. Someone actually refurbished one & modernized it & they rent it out on airbnb! I stayed in it for my birthday

[Emily-tviz]

That quote about only finding bison skulls and no living bison made me realize why the go to depiction of the american southwest features a lot of bison skulls on the ground

[TheOmegagoldfish]

I cannot believe Max neglected to mention that the pioneers would sometimes eschew their wagons and instead ride large rocks for miles across the prairie.

[scotthealy]

Fun fact for anybody who’s never eaten those Camas bulbs Max mentions. They have a prune-y kind of taste and a texture similar to fruit leather when cooked. It’s also a mild laxative until your system gets used to it… to quote William Clark about eating camas: “it filled us so full of wind we were scarce able to breathe all night.”

[MrJacksjb]

You are on the Oregon Trail and meet a strange man. He says, "Hi, my name is Terry." You laugh and say, "Terry is a girl's name." Terry shoots you. You have died of Dissin' Terry.

[phillipmele]

“And they were awful good biscuits”
>lie down
>try not to cry
>cry a lot

[brianmoyachiuz]

Sweetie: I got your four food groups
Beans 🫘
Bacon 🥓
Whisky 🥃
And lard 🧈

[bonniemann]

That $600 shopping list equates to roughly $25, 000 today
EDIT: Elisha Perkins' $1500 worth of discarded supplies is roughly $62, 000 today!!!

[beantheirishsetter]

Notes on buffalo poop. Having lived in the bush in Kenya with cows, their poop smells like spring. Sweet and grass-like. I was told by a Nat'l park worker (in the US) buffalo poop smells similarly

[censusgary]

The story about Smith having to give up his mother’s rolling pin brought tears to my eyes.

I know, it’s not as bad as dying of dysentery, but it still hurts.

[j.munday]

My great-great-grandmother was 14 when she married my 16-year-old great-great-grandfather. The first year of their marriage included traveling across the plains to their new life in Nebraska from the east coast. They worked a farm together and, by all accounts, had lives they were happy with and proud of. They were married for over 75 years. I cannot imagine to this day how tough they were.

My grandma was born too early and g-g-grandmother was the midwife. She realized by grandma was too weak so she warmed up the old stove they used to incubate animals and put her in it and kept her alive. I literally wouldn't be here without that woman. Her name was Nancy Anne.

[pyronuke]

My great-great-great-great grandfather came along the Oregon trail with his family when he was just three years old. This was in the late 1850's, so a little later than the stories you usually hear about. At this point there were a few more checkpoint settlements along the trail which made getting supplies a little easier. He passed down a story about how on one of the legs they'd misjudged how many rations they needed and had to scrape by on foraging off the land. His sister who was 12 at the time was off foraging when she ran into a Native American. In broken English he asked what a young white girl was doing so far out by herself. She told him of her family's situation, and after listening to her story he reached into his bag and gave her a large handful of the his buffalo jerkey to take back. That handful of dried meat managed to stretch their rations out a few more days and they were able to make it to the checkpoint a week later. Unfortunately she forgot to ask his name, but this stranger's generosity likely saved the lives of the younger siblings, including my great-great-great-great grandpa.

[gregzeigler]

The meat was often salted in old times and packed in ceramic jars. Salt, meat, salt, meat, all the way to the top. This kept meat from spoiling and had to be soaked in water a few times before use. My Uncle Don told me, when he was a kid, the pork was kept in barrels with salt water and lasted a year.

[Jackie]

I love the idea of using an egg as a unit of general measurement as almost everyone in the world will know how big an egg is.

[Leandro_Montibeler]

That man with the rolling pin. That grown man crying because he had to leave his mother's rolling pin and he missed her... He's like me. Like us.
Every now and then I hear or read something that makes me realize on a deep level that everyone that ever existed was a person. All the heroes and villains of history, sure. But every single one of the common folk was as much a fully realized person as me. They all had dreams and memories and childhoods and dreams and happiness and misery. Tens of thousands of years of human experience. An ocean full of people that lived full lives not unlike mine. It's gut wrenching every time.

[brooklynnchick]

Max, I don’t know if you can still get hold of the footage but, in 1989 a married couple from Sweetwater, Montana (last name was Clark) organized an honest to goodness wagon train across private and public lands through Montana’s historic state capitols. I know that CNN and maybe Ted Turner’s network covered it. I was seven years old when my parents bought a team of Belgian draught horses and an old John Deere grain wagon and took off on the adventure of a lifetime! We traveled the prairie from Bannock, Montana through Twin Bridges, Dillon, and Boulder and finally into the current capitol, Helena, Montana. We arrived around the 4th of July. While on the road we baked Indian cakes, and also harvested gooseberries and serviceberries, tried rattlesnake and prickly pear cactus! Your video brought back awesome memories, thanks! ❤

[corvid...]

As a native Oregonian... getting an Oregon trail story, two Hard Tacks in the episode, and an errant "Proble-ing" at 17:54 has made this a great morning

[grannyfisher]

My son gave me a t-shirt last year that had the little ox-cart on it and the words, "You have died of dysentery." I laughed so hard, because we all used to play that game when the kids were growing up. Thank you for a very entertaining (and informative) episode!