When 1883 writer Taylor Sheridan put a group of German immigrants on a wagon train heading toward Oregon, he drew from the historical record of immigration to America. During the 1880s around 1.5 million Germans came to the United States and the largest number of them arrived in 1882 when about a quarter of a million left their homeland for a new opportunity.
Oregon saw the arrival of the first Volga Germans in 1881, people who had first settled on the Great Plains in central Kansas. Those German migrants left Kansas and found their way to California where they boarded a steamship to travel from San Francisco to Portland. The following year most of them left the Portland area and traveled to Eastern Washington in search of an area where farmland was more plentiful. Some remained in Oregon, founding the village of Blooming.
Germans traveled overland from Nebraska to the Pendleton, Oregon, area in 1882, and while some remained in the Pendleton area, several families kept traveling west to Portland and a new town they established in Albina. A decade later more Germans migrated from the Midwest and Great Plains settling the town of Canby, Oregon.
Immigration by Eastern Europeans to America was not a new phenomenon. Indeed, Germans had been coming to America since the 1600s, with larger numbers arriving in the 1700s as they settled in Pennsylvania and other eastern areas. While living in Pennsylvania, German craftsmen built the first Conestoga wagons. Although these large wagons were never popular with overland travelers due to their massive size, they did see widespread use hauling freight, particularly along the Santa Fe Trail after its establishment in 1821.
Denne historien er fra April 2022-utgaven av True West.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra April 2022-utgaven av True West.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Where Did the Loot Go? - This is one of those find the money stories. And it's one that has attracted treasure hunters for more than 150 years.
Whatever happened to the $97,000 from the Reno Gang's last heist? Up to a dozen members of the Reno Gang stopped a Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis train at a watering station in southern Indiana. The outlaws had prior intelligence about its main load: express car safes held about $97,000 in government bonds and notes. In the process of the job, one of the crew was killed and two others hurt. The gang made a clean getaway with the loot.
Hero of Horsepower - Los Angeles lawman William Hammel tamed one of the West's wildest towns with hard work and horseless carriages.
Los Angeles lawman William Hammel tamed one of the West's wildest towns with hard work and horseless carriages.
From the Basin to the Plains
Discover Wyoming on a road trip to Cody, Casper and Cheyenne.
COLLECTING AMERICAN OUTLAWS
Wilbur Zink has preserved the Younger Gang's history in more ways than one.
Spencer's West
After the Civil War, savvy frontiersmen chose the Spencer repeating carbine.
Firearms With a Storied Past
Rock Island gavels off high profits from historic firearms.
She Means Business!
An energetic and ambitious woman has come to Lincoln, New Mexico, to restore the town's legendary Ellis Store.
Ride that Train!
HERITAGE RAILROADS KEEP THE OLD WEST ALIVE ACROSS THE UNITED STATES.
Saddle Up with a Western
Old West fiction and nonfiction are the perfect genres to fill your summer reading list.
RENEGADES OF THE RAILS
RAILROADS WERE OPEN SEASON FOR OKLAHOMA AND INDIAN TERRITORY OUTLAW GANGS.