I read Stephen Ambrose's excellent book "Undaunted Courage" twice, and a condensed version of the diaries. I still find it amazing that there was only one fatality, and that was due to appendicitis shortly after the expedition's start.
Brad,
As my high school drafting teacher was wont to say, "It was when men were men and women were proud of it."
A huge part of American's soul has been lost since 1620, or even as recent as the 1920s. I dare say that if a group of today's average Americans were to step into Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine, and be transported back to a wagon train journeying from St. Louis to the Willamette Valley, that fully 75% of them would die.