PIKE'S PEAK
OR BUST!
A Colorado Trail Adventure — 1859
Gold has been struck at the foot of Pikes Peak!
Load your wagon in Independence, Missouri and guide your party 910 miles across prairie, river, and mountain pass to the diggings.
Load your wagon in Independence, Missouri and guide your party 910 miles across prairie, river, and mountain pass to the diggings.
"Pike's Peak or Bust!" — painted on a thousand wagon covers, 1859.
📜 How to Play
- Name your party of six, pick an occupation, and choose your departure month.
- Spend wisely at the general store: oxen pull the wagon, food keeps everyone alive, spare parts save you from disaster.
- Travel day by day. Set your pace and rations — push hard and you cover ground but wear out your people and oxen.
- Hunt for extra meat, rest to heal the sick, and trade with fellow travelers.
- Cross rivers carefully. Fording is fast but risky; caulking takes a day; ferries cost money.
- Reach the Pikes Peak diggings with your party alive. Your score rewards health, supplies, and thrift — bankers score easiest, farmers score biggest.
🏆 High Scores
📝 Assemble Your Party
Choose an occupation
⚖️ Matt's General Store
Independence, Missouri — "Outfitter to the Fifty-Niners"
Matt's advice: "Take six oxen if you can — a short team crawls.
200 pounds of food per person is the bare minimum for 910 miles.
Spare wagon parts are cheap here and priceless out there."
🗺️
➡️ Next:
🍖 Food: 🐂 Oxen:
💰 bullets
🧥 Clothes: 🔧 Spare parts:
🚶 Pace
🍽️ Rations
🏔️