About 20,000 emigrants died on the Oregon Trail. That averaged to about one grave for every 100 yards from the Missouri River to the Willamette Valley. And because pioneers had to keep to a steady pace each day, burials on the trail were hasty. There often was no time to create a marker to note a burial site.
The major cause of diseases. Cholera was the most common disease. Cholera spreads through water contaminated by garbage and sewage. Emigrants passed through, and sometimes camped near, the refuse left by earlier wagon trains. Unknowing travelers drank the filthy water. Cholera, as well as typhoid and measles, claimed thousands of lives.
