From the 1840s to the 1870s, the Oregon Trail was the primary westward route for some 200,000 Americans seeking new lives and opportunities in the West. The trail was generally considered to have begun in Independence, Missouri and ended in Oregon City, Oregon, with a length of about 2,000 miles. In practice, however, emigrants on the trail could join it at any of a number of “jumping-off points,” including St. Joseph, Missouri, and Council Bluffs, Iowa. They could also leave the trail to reach individual destinations in Utah, California, and other spots in the western territories. Since so many settlers used the trail network to get to places other than Oregon, the Oregon Trail is sometimes called the Great Platte River Road, after the river it parallels for much of its length.
Much of the Oregon Trail incorporated routes that had for centuries been used by Native Americans for trade and communications. Other portions were blazed by French and British trappers in an area that had long been a matter of dispute between France and England. Once the United States asserted its own claims to the Oregon Territory, exploration became more systematic. After Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from the French in 1803, one of his first acts was to dispatch an expedition to explore the vast region. Commanded by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the expedition followed rivers and mountain passes to reach the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Their return to St. Louis after 28 months (1804-06) marked the first official exploration of the region by the U. S. government. Within a few short years, American fur traders began moving over the same landscape. The most important of these early fur-trade parties were the overland and seagoing expeditions financed by John Jacob Astor, whose employees founded the post of Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River. Over the next 20 years, mountain men, or independent trappers and traders, explored the region in search of furs, in the process blazing several shortcuts and alternate routes to the West.
In the 1830s the continuing dispute with the British over the ownership of the Oregon Country combined with the activities of Protestant missionaries in the region raised public awareness of Oregon. Adding to information about the routes west were exploring parties sent by the U. S. government. The most important of these was commanded by John C. Fremont, whose 1843 expedition generated favorable publicity for the Oregon Country as a place for settlement. Furthermore, Fremont’s report provided for a precise and accurate description of an overland route to Oregon for the first time. His report became the first handbook for immigrants.
The first overland migration of farming families to Oregon took place in spring 1842. Annual migrations followed, with ever-rising numbers. The route was soon known as the Oregon Trail, although the discovery of gold in California in 1848 led to the large immigration of Forty-NINERS the following year along a variation known as the California Trail.
Beginning in Independence or St. Joseph, the Oregon Trail first followed the Platte River to the west, crossing the river at several points. The first major landmark on the trek was Fort Laramie, some 665 miles from the starting point, where travelers paused for rest and resupply. Here too they sent mail to their families in the East and exchanged their fatigued draft animals for fresh stock, at a high price. Once more on the trail, immigrant parties followed the North Platte to the Sweetwater River, and thence by this river to South Pass. The pass was the level and gradual gateway across the Continental Divide to the interior of the continent. South Pass was about 950 miles from Independence, and it approximately marked the midway point in the overland voyage. Another 100 miles, and the trail came to Fort Bridger, where it turned northwest toward Fort Hall on the Snake River. Pioneers then trekked along the Snake to the valley of the Grande Ronde River, and then across the Blue Mountains to the Columbia River. The trail down the Columbia to Fort Vancouver was the final stage. After reaching the fort, where they might be welcomed by John Mcloughlin, most of the pioneers traveled south down the Willamette River to the growing agricultural settlements around the Protestant missions.
Initially, the Oregon Trail was difficult to follow, and an experienced guide was a necessity. Within a few years, however, settlers could practically follow the wheel ruts carved by their predecessors’ wagons all the way to the Pacific. (These marks can still be seen in places today.) Most emigrants used the Oregon Trail to bring west their entire families and all that they owned, and a special transport system accommodated their needs. The Conestoga wagon, or “prairie schooner,” was the method of choice. This was a canvas-covered wooden wagon with a concave bottom, the better to retain its cargo on the bumpy, rutted route. The wagon had to be packed with six months’ worth of provisions for each family, along with their tents, blankets, tools, clothing, and all their possessions. The immigrants typically walked the entire way so as not to burden the oxen or mules.
Travel over the Oregon Trail was, in many respects, routine. In confronting the challenges of the western half of the continent, however, the immigrants had to exercise care and judgment. There were few places to find help. To begin with, the travel window was limited. Parties had to depart Independence in May, after grass had begun to appear on the prairie, to support the livestock. They also had to cross the Blue Mountains before the first blizzards of October closed the mountain passes. Therefore the pace on the trail had to be continuous, since the wagon trains could count on only five months to make the journey. Foremost among the priorities was management of the draft animals, and ensuring their continuing health meant that the party needed to travel as lightly as possible.
The great popular danger of the Oregon Trail was always assumed to be Native Americans, but in fact Indian attacks on wagon trains were rare, despite the settlers’ fears. Some of the Native peoples along the Oregon Trail saw trade opportunities in the newcomers’ arrival; others were disturbed by the influx of white settlers in their lands, especially as their numbers grew. But for the overland immigrants on the Oregon Trail, a far greater danger than Indians was disease, for the exhausting trip left migrants vulnerable to many illnesses. Cholera was a particular danger, and epidemics on the trail in some years led to deaths from disease for several weeks after departure. Indeed, given the health dangers associated with river towns, the emigrants probably increased their chances of survival once they had left the towns and were on the trail west.
After 1869, when the Union Pacific Railroad completed its transcontinental line, the Oregon Trail began to fall into disuse. Any settler who could afford it preferred the ease and comfort of a two-week rail journey to a six-month wagon trek. But for the less well-off, the Oregon Trail remained a viable route to the west even into the early part of the 20th century.
Further reading: David Dary, The Oregon Trail: An American Saga (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005); Francis Parkman, The Oregon Trail (New York: Viking, 1849, 1982); Oregon Trail Foundation, “End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center” URL: Www. endoftheoregontrail. org/index. html. Downloaded 2001; John D. Unruh, The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-1860 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1979).
—Mary Kay Linge
World History
