Oregon Trail

For other uses of the term, see Oregon Trail (disambiguation)

The Ox Team or the Old Oregon Trail 1852-1906 by Ezra Meeker.

The Oregon Trail was one of the key overland migration routes on which pioneers traveled across the North American continent in wagons in order to settle new parts of the United States of America during the 19th century. The Oregon Trail helped the United States implement its cultural goal of Manifest Destiny, that is, to build a great nation spanning the North American continent. The Oregon Trail spanned over half the continent as the wagon trail proceeded 2,170 miles (3,500 kilometers) west through territories and land later to become six U.S. states (Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon). Between 1841 and 1869, the Oregon Trail was used by settlers to the Northwest and West Coast areas of what is now the United States. Once the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, this trail was no longer used by long-distance travelers.

History

The Astorians

The first land route across the continent that was well-mapped was that taken by Lewis and Clark from 1804 to 1805. They believed they had found a practical route to the west coast. However, the pass through the Rocky Mountains they took, Lolo Pass, turned out to be too difficult for wagons to pass. In 1810, John Jacob Astor outfitted an expedition (known popularly as the Astor Expedition or Astorians) to find an overland supply route for establishing a fur trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River at Fort Astoria.

Fearing attacks by the Blackfeet the expedition veered south of the Lewis and Clark route in South Dakota and in the process passed through Wyoming and then down the Snake River to the Columbia River.

Members of the party returned back east after the British took over the outpost in the War of 1812 via the Snake River. The party stumbled upon South Pass a wide, low pass through the Rockies in Wyoming. Passing through the pass the party continued on back via the Platte River.

Fort Astoria was returned to United States control at the end of the war. However the British Hudson Bay Company continued to control the fur trade there.

The Great American Desert

Westward expansion did not begin immediately, however. Reports from expeditions in 1806 by Lt. Zebulon Pike and in 1819 by Maj. Stephen Long described the Great Plains as "unfit for human habitation" and "The Great American Desert". These descriptions ignored the fact that the land could be fertile if irrigated with ground water (the Great Plains are a major farming area today). Regardless, the images they conjured up of a wasteland of sand and cactus discouraged migration for some time.

The route of the Oregon Trail began to be scouted out as early as 1823 by fur traders and explorers. The trail began to be regularly used by fur traders, missionaries, and military expeditions during the 1830s. At the same time, small groups of individuals and the occasional family attempted to follow the trail and some succeeded in arriving at Fort Vancouver in Washington.

The Elm Grove Expedition of 1842

On May 16, 1842 the first organized wagon train on the Oregon Trail set out from Elm Grove, Missouri, with more than 100 pioneers. (Members of the party later disagreed over the size of the party, one stating 160 adults and children were in the party, while another counted only 105.) Despite company policy to discourage U.S. emigration, John McLoughlin, Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver, offered the American settlers food and farming equipment on credit, being unwilling to watch able-bodied people starve.

Free land!

The biggest driving force for settlement was the offer of free land.

In 1843 the settlers of the Willamette Valley by a vote of 52 to 50 drafted a constitution that organized the land claim process in the state. Married couples were allowed to claim up to 640 acres (a "section" which is a square mile) at no cost and singles could claim 320 acres.[1]

In 1848 the United States formally declared Oregon Country a U.S. territory. The Donation Land Act of 1850 superseded the earlier laws. However it recognized the earlier claims. Settlers after 1850 could be granted half a section (320 acres) if married and a quarter section (160 acres) if single. A four-year residence and cultivation was required. In 1854 the land was no longer free (although still cheap -- initially $1.25/acre).

Opening of the Oregon Trail

In 1843, an estimated 800 immigrants arrived in the Willamette Valley. Hundreds of thousands more would follow, especially after gold was discovered in California in 1849. The trail was still in use during the Civil War, but traffic declined after 1869 when the transcontinental railroad was completed. The trail continued to be used into the 1890s and modern highways eventually paralleled large portions of the trail.

Other migration paths for early settlers prior to the establishment of the transcontinental railroads involved taking passage on a ship rounding the Cape Horn of South America or to the Isthmus (now Panama) between North and South America. There, an arduous mule trek through hazardous swamps and rain forests awaited the traveler. A ship was typically then taken to San Francisco, California.

Remnants of the trail in Idaho, Kansas, Oregon, and Wyoming have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Routes

The trail is marked by numerous cutoffs and shortcuts and is a hodge podge from Missouri to Oregon. The basic route follows river valleys. Starting initially in Independence/Kansas City, the trail followed the Santa Fe Trail just south of the Kansas River. At about Topeka, Kansas it crossed the Kansas River and angled to Nebraska paralleling the Little Blue River until reaching the south side of the Platte River. It followed the Platte and North Platte to the South Pass hole in the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming. From South Pass the trail parallels the Snake River to the Columbia River before arriving at Oregon City or taking the Barlow Road to the Willamette Valley and other destinations in what are now the states of Washington and Oregon.

The modern-day U.S. Highway 26 follows the Oregon Trail for much of its length.

While the first few parties organized and departed from Elm Grove, the Oregon Trail's generally designated starting point was Independence or Westport on the Missouri River. Several towns along the Missouri River had feeder trails and make claims to being the starting point including Weston, Missouri, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Atchison, Kansas, and St. Joseph, Missouri.

The Oregon Trail's designated termination point was Oregon City, at the time the proposed capital of the Oregon Territory. However, many settlers branched off or grew exhausted short of this goal and settled at convenient or promising locations along the trail. Commerce with pioneers going further west greatly assisted these early settlements in getting established and launched local micro-economies critical to these settlements' prosperity.

At many places along the trail, alternate routes called "cutoffs" were established, either to shorten the trail, or to get around difficult terrain. The Lander and Sublette cutoffs provided shorter routes through the mountains than the main route, bypassing Fort Bridger. In later years, the Salt Lake cutoff provided a route to Salt Lake City. The famous Donner Party followed a faulty cut-off, which eventually led to their demise.

A number of other trails followed the Oregon Trail for part of its length. These include the Mormon Trail from Illinois to Utah, and the California Trail to the gold fields of California.

Landmarks

Many rock formations became famous landmarks that the Oregon Trail pioneers used to navigate as well as leave messages for pioneers following behind them. The first landmarks that the pioneers encountered were in Western Nebraska, such as Courthouse and Jail Rocks, Chimney Rock, and Scotts Bluff (where wagon ruts can still be seen to this day). In Wyoming, you can still read the names that these pioneers carved into a landmark bluff called Register Cliff, and, farther west, in Independence Rock. One Wyoming landmark along the trail, Ayres Natural Bridge, is now a state park of the same name.

Travel equipment

The Oregon Trail was too long and arduous for the standard Conestoga wagons used in the Eastern U.S. at that time for most freight transport. These big wagons had a reputation for killing their oxen teams approximately two thirds along the trail and leaving their unfortunate owners stranded in desolate, isolated territory. The only solution was to abandon all belongings and traipse onward with the supplies and tools that could be carried or dragged. In one case in 1846 the Donner Party, en route to California, was stranded in the Sierra Nevada in November and had to resort to cannibalism to survive.

This led to the rapid development of the prairie schooner. This wagon was approximately half the size of the big Conestogas but was also manufactured in quantity by the Conestoga Brothers. It was designed for the Oregon Trail's conditions and was a marvel of engineering in its time.

The recommended amount of food to take for an adult was 150 lb. of flour, 20 lb. of corn meal, 50 lb. of bacon, 40 lb. of sugar, 10 lb. of coffee, 15 lb. of dried fruit, 5 lb. of salt, half a pound of saleratus (baking soda), 2 lb. of tea, 5 lb. of rice, and 15 lb. of beans.

One of the important pieces of equipment for the pioneer were the guns they carried. Rifles, shotguns, and pistols provided protection for the travellers and a way to hunt fresh game to help maintain their physical strength and morale. Many formerly settled travellers, however, were unfamiliar with the safe use of such arms, and gun-related accidents were sadly common on the pioneer trail. The common idea that such weapons were necessary protection from 'hostile natives' arose largely from an inflated view of the threat from tribal peoples to those on the trail; actual interactions were almost always peaceful and resulted in trade helpful to both travellers and natives.

Music

The western expansion and the Oregon Trail in particular inspired many songs that told of the settlers' experiences. "Uncle Sam's Farm," encouraged east-coast dwellers to "Come right away. Our lands they are broad enough, so don't be alarmed. Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm." In "Western Country," the singer exhorts that "if I had no horse at all, I'd still be a hauling, far across those Rocky Mountains, goin' away to Oregon."

*Oregon or the Grave
*Historic Sites on the Oregon Trail
*Oregon Trail History Library
*Oregon Trail: The Trail West
*Oregon National Historic Trail Home Page
*Oregon Trail Map 1843
*Mitchell Map of 1846
*Music of the Oregon Trail
*Photos and History of the Oregon Trail in Central Wyoming

Oregon Trail: Encyclopedia BETA

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