If you ever feel like complaining when you are in a car
or bus and traffic is slow, think about this. For most of
America's history, people got around by walking. And
these weren't short walks to school or the store. They
were really, really long walks.
You probably know that the first Americans walked
here from Asia across a land bridge. Once they got here,
they kept on walking in every direction. They walked from
what is now Alaska to the southern tip of South America.
That's more than ten thousand miles. Of course, it took
hundreds of years, maybe even thousands, but they still
walked it. And don't forget, they also walked from the
Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.
Move ahead in time to the European explorers who
came to the Americas. They got here by ship. Then they
used one of three ways to travel. Some people rode
horses, others rode wagons, and the rest of the people
walked. By rest of the people, we mean most of the
people. The knights, leaders, and other important people
got to ride in horses or wagons. All the others got around
The same thing is true with wagon trains. Television
and the movies make it seem as if people were usually
in the wagons. They weren't. There was too much stuff to
carry in the wagons. Many of the people walked beside
the wagons through freezing cold and blazing heat for