August/September 1999S
(Volume 3, Number 1)

Today, fast food restaurants make meal time quick and easy. Read on to learn more about food in Kansas history.

Food on the trail was a daily routine of the same old thing!

Between 1843 and 1861, more than 300,000 people traveled west on the Oregon Trail to find new homes in Oregon and California. The trail began in Independence, Missouri, where the emigrants would gather to stock their wagons and wait for the prairie grasses to grow high enough to feed their animals. Once they left Independence, they traveled through the northeastern corner of Kansas before moving into Nebraska.

Soldiers assigned to protecting settlers on the trails often were stationed in lonely outposts miles from a ready source of fresh food and supplies.

The era of cowboys and cattle drives followed the Civil War.

1. flour
2. sugar
3. dried fruit
4. coffee beans
5. pinto beans
6. plates, cups, cutlery
7. "Possible Drawer"
8. salt, lard, baking soda
9. vinegar, tobacco
10. sourdough, matches, molasses
11. coffee pot
12. skillets, Dutch ovens

Follow the recipe and try this common trail food. Could you eat it for days on end. . .with bugs in it?

A Scavenger's Paradise

The emigrants were told not to overload their wagons but many didn't listen to the advice.

Wichitas and Pawnees were among the Native Americans who moved into Kansas before the 1500s. They focused a major part of their lives on finding, preparing and preserving food.

Americans love popcorn! We eat a total of 17.3 billion quarts of popcorn each year and average about 68 quarts per person.

Michael Krumm of Baldwin City, Kansas, enjoys making and sharing a treat that Native Americans introduced to the pioneers.

Fred Harvey, a Kansan, starts a railroad restaurant chain.

Some of us like ours with ketchup, lettuce, pickle and tomato. Others say "hold the pickle" and ask for theirs with mustard, cheese and onion.

According to early guidebooks, each family needed to pack 200 pounds of flour, 150 pounds of bacon, 10 pounds of coffee, 20 pounds of sugar, and 10 pounds of salt per person in order to have enough food for the six-months journey on the Oregon Trail.