Encyclopedia
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 west through territories and land later to become six
U.S. states . 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 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 . 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. 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 at no cost and singles could claim 320 acres.
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 if married and a quarter section if single. A four-year residence and cultivation was required. In 1854 the land was no longer free .
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 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 . 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 , 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."
Trivia
When purchasing a new vehicle Oregonians can purchase special commemorative Oregon Trail license plates for their cars for an added fee.
The story of the Oregon Trail inspired a popular children's computer game of the same name, The Oregon Trail.
Historical Literature
by
Francis ParkmanSee also
External links
