Going West

Going West

Going West
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 3 to 4
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	3.8

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		alongside, shrink, wheelbarrow, buses, west, cheap, banded, nearly, planes, dangerous, iron, coast, often, train, willing, hunger
	content words:		North America, Central America, South America, Panama Canal, Crossing America

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Going West
By Mary Lynn Bushong

¹     If you wanted to go west in the 1800's, how would you get there? There were no cars or planes. There were no trains or buses. That left two main choices -- ships or wagon trains.

²     If you wanted to go by ship, you had a long voyage ahead of you. Ships would go down the coast of North America and past Central America. It would keep going down the east coast of South America and up the other side. It was a very long trip, taking weeks or months. After the Panama Canal opened in 1914, it made the trip much faster.

³     If you did not want to travel by ship, you could go across the country. This was how most people went west. Some went west to look for gold. Others were looking for cheap land. Many of the people had very little money. They were willing to work hard to get a better life.

⁴     There were different ways of moving yourself along the trails. Some people used a wheelbarrow. It would have been like ones used today, but made of wood and iron. A man pushing a wheelbarrow could go faster than a wagon, but it would make him tired. He would want to stay close to the wagon train.

⁵     The main way people moved from one side of the country to the other was with Conestoga wagons. The wagons were hard to ride in. Most people found it easier to walk alongside.

Paragraphs 6 to 11:
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