18 Things That Always Happened on the Oregon Trail

Updated on 6/17/2015 at 6:55 PM

Remember the days of behaving so well in class that your teacher would reward you with 20 minutes of The Oregon Trail? Sure, maybe you could play Pokémon on a fancier game system, but nothing beat trying to ford the river and hoping you would make it to Oregon. There's probably no game out there that's frustrated an entire generation when their ox would wander away from them and then make them come back to play it again and again.

Let's travel back to 1848 and take a trip down the river and remember every single thing that always happened while playing this amazing game. It wasn't always dysentery that foiled your plans of getting to Oregon — sometimes it was a fire.

Choosing the most ridiculous names for the members in your party was a must.

Everything was great until someone got cholera . . .

. . . and someone else broke an arm.

Getting the measles definitely upped the suspense in the game.

Learning about different diseases was never-ending.

Getting dysentery was the ultimate kiss of death.

Hunting wasn't easy, but someone was always more exhausted than you.

Fording the river was always the worst option to choose.

Deciding to repair an axle or keep going was not an easy choice to make.

Pouring one out whenever someone died was the least you could do.

Nothing was more scarring than hunting cute buffalo and deer.

Only to have hunted too much, you couldn't keep it all.

Dying wasn't just limited to members of your party — oxen could die too.

Writing funny phrases on their tombstone was a highlight.

Trying to understand how someone could ever set your wagon on fire would drive you insane.

Reaching a new town was useless when you had no money to buy any supplies.

Wandering oxen constantly confused you.

Thieves stealing oxen wouldn't wake you at all.

But it was all worth it in the end to make it to Oregon!

Sure, some members of your party are gone forever (RIP) and you might've gained your first gray hairs playing this game, but West Coast, best coast, right?