Facts of the Oregon Trail
Travel Tips
John Zaremba, Demand Media
Covered wagons carried supplies, not passengers, along the Oregon Trail.
If you live in the western United States, you most likely have the Oregon Trail to thank. This 2,000-mile path provided the first major gateway for settlement of the West. Hundreds of thousands of pioneers trekked along the trail in the mid-1800s, most traveling on foot and escorting wagons overloaded with supplies.
Origins
The Oregon Trail predated the Transcontinental Railroad as the primary means of travel to the Western frontier. It stretched more than 2,000 miles from Missouri to Oregon, offering travelers something no other roadway did--the South Pass, a 12-mile valley in Wyoming that allowed wagons to get through the otherwise impassable Rocky Mountains.
Pioneers began using the Oregon Trail in earnest around 1843, when approximately 1,000 set off on a journey known as The Great Wagon Train, according to "All About the Oregon Trail," an informational resource compiled by researchers at IdahoStateUniversity. More than a half million people followed the trail over the next 25 years. Some sought cheap farmland, others the storied riches of California gold mining. Patriotism also drove them; Oregon was a British territory, and many wished to move there and claim it for the United States, according to the National Park Service. England ceded the territory to the United States in 1846.
First White Users
The Oregon Trail became famous as a means for those in the East to head west, but the first white man to use the trail did the opposite--he started in the West and traveled east. Robert Stewart, a fur trader from the Oregon territory, traveled the trail in 1810. It took him 10 months to go from FortAstoria to St. Louis, according to the National Park Service. His route improved upon the risky and more rugged trail made by Lewis and Clark seven years earlier. The government had paid the duo secretly to find a path that would open Oregon to settlement.
The first wagon hit the trail in 1836, accompanying a missionary party led by Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. They fell about 200 miles short of Oregon, according to the National Park Service, but their success was such that it inspired thousands of others to follow the path.
Risks and Dangers
Those who set out on the trail had a one-in-10 chance of dying before reaching their destination. While popular belief holds that hostile Native Americans posed a great risk to the pioneers, "All About the Oregon Trail" contends otherwise. Native people often aided the travelers, trading food and horses for items such as clothing and tobacco. Fighting often stemmed from American aggression rather than native unrest.
The largest risks came from nature and from the travelers themselves. Cholera killed seemingly healthy travelers within hours. Others drowned while attempting to float their wagons across rivers. Other causes of death included wagon accidents--weary travelers were sometimes crushed while walking alongside their wagons, and errant gunfire often proved fatal.
Modern Use
Congress designated the Oregon National Historic Trail in 1978 and placed it under the management of the National Park Service. Though many parts of the trail now lie on private property, the travel and history site Frontier Trails of the Old West reports that a similar route exists between Independence, Missouri, and Oregon City, Oregon. More than 100 historic sites lie along the way.
References
- Idaho State University: All About the Oregon Trail
- National Park Service: Oregon National Historic Trail History and Culture
- Frontier Trails of the Old West: Oregon Trail
Photo Credits
- western wagon image by maiky911 from Fotolia.com