I had almost forgotten but my brothers and I burned some dung just to see if it really worked. It did. My mother never burned any in the stove but used to burn corn cobs.
Well, never burnt them in a stove, but did try them once or twice to cook over an open campfire in a cast iron skillet while out west, pretty much just to say I did it. They burn fine and really don't smell bad at all if I recall.
I will have to ask him which was his favorite. I know banker was the easiest, because you start with more $ and can buy things at the forts later.
HA! My 5th person was baby Fern, she was a toddler in my mind. Holy cow she kept getting broken legs and arms and dying omg. The version I played is different that your pic, same message on the version I played was
cow patties don't smell like much of anything when collected from a field, dried and burned. It's not really surprising people collect it and burn it all over the world. All bets are off if they're from inside the barn swimming in cow urine. That stuff is nasty. I've had Oregon Trail on several devices but I don't remember ever playing it. Even with the descriptions above. I probably still have it on floppy/floppies somewhere or a CD bundle of games.
Imagine how happy they were when someone offered them coal instead of dung, to cook with. This was what sat in the front of my 2nd grade classroom. It was fierce competition between me and another student for screen time. (first one done with assignments gets computer time) In the third grade, in the special nerdery I went to once a week we got a Macinitosh, which even the principle didn't yet have. My first interaction with a 'mouse' was pretty neat.