Still, as towns were established along the Oregon Trail, the route continued to serve thousands of emigrants with “gold fever” on their way to California.
According to the Oregon California Trails Association, almost one in ten who embarked on the trail didn’t survive. Many settlers looked at the Oregon Trail with an idealistic eye, but it was anything but romantic. Some people continued south into California, especially after the Gold Rush started in 1849. Then they crossed the desert to Fort Hall, the second trading post.įrom there they navigated Snake River Canyon and a steep, dangerous climb over the Blue Mountains before moving along the Columbia River to the settlement of Dalles and finally to Oregon City. So many people added their name to the rock it became known as the “Great Register of the Desert.”Īfter leaving Independence Rock, settlers climbed the Rocky Mountains to the South Pass. The settlers gave a sigh of relief if they reached Independence Rock-a huge granite rock in Wyoming that marked the halfway point of their journey-by July 4 because it meant they were on schedule. Summer thunderstorms were common and made traveling slow and treacherous. It had to be sturdy enough to withstand the elements yet small and light enough for a team of oxen or mules to pull day after day.įrom Fort Kearney, they followed the Platte River over 600 miles to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and then ascended the Rocky Mountains where they faced hot days and cold nights.
They also had to purchase hundreds of pounds of supplies including flour, sugar, bacon, coffee, salt, rifles and ammunition.īy far, the most important item for successful life on the trail was the covered wagon. Emigrants had to sell their homes, businesses and any possessions they couldn’t take with them. Planning a five- to six-month trip across rugged terrain was no easy task and could take up to a year. The incident sparked a seven-year war between the Cayuse and the federal government. In the ongoing conflict, Whitman, his wife and some of the mission staff were killed many more were taken hostage for over a month. As more settlers arrived, the Cayuse resisted their encroachment.Īfter a measles epidemic broke out in 1847, the Cayuse population was decimated, despite Whitman using his medical knowledge to help them. Upon Whitman’s return to his mission, his main goal shifted from converting American Indians to assisting white settlers. It effectively opened the floodgates of pioneer migration along the Oregon Trail and became known as the Great Emigration of 1843.
While Lewis and Clark had made their way west from 1804 to 1806, merchants, traders and trappers were also among the first people to forge a path across the Continental Divide. Missionaries Blaze the Oregon Trailīy the 1840s, the Manifest Destiny had Americans in the East eager to expand their horizons. Without the Oregon Trail and the passing of the Oregon Donation Land Act in 1850, which encouraged settlement in the Oregon Territory, American pioneers would have been slower to settle the American West in the 19th century. The trail was arduous and snaked through Missouri and present-day Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho and finally into Oregon. The Oregon Trail was a roughly 2,000-mile route from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon, that was used by hundreds of thousands of American pioneers in the mid-1800s to emigrate west.
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