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From there, emigrants had the option of either rafting down the Columbia River to Fort Vancouver or taking the Barlow Road to the Willamette Valley and other destinations in Washington and Orego n. After crossing the Rockies through South Pass, the trail followed the Snake River to the Columbia River. Along this part of the journey, the Great Plains started giving way to bluffs and hills that were the precursor of the Rocky Mountains. Within Nebraska, the Oregon Trail followed the Platte River and then the North Platte River into Wyoming. Pioneers on the Oregon Trail followed various rivers and used landmarks along the trail to guide their way and gauge their progress. It was designed for the conditions and was a marvel of engineering in its time. Though this wagon looked similar, it was approximately half the size of the big Conestogas and manufactured in quantity by the Conestoga Brothers. This led to the rapid development of the prairie schooner. 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. The only solution was to abandon all belongings and traipse onward with the supplies and tools that could be carried or dragged. These big wagons had a reputation for killing their oxen teams approximately two-thirds along the trail and leaving their unfortunate owners stranded in the desolate, isolated territory. The Oregon Trail was too long and arduous for the standard Conestoga wagons used in the eastern U.S. Register Cliff near Guernsey, Wyoming, Kathy Alexander. The Salt Lake cutoff provided a route to Salt Lake City later. The Lander and Sublette cutoffs provided shorter routes through the mountains than the main route, bypassing Fort Bridger, Wyoming.
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However, many settlers branched off or grew exhausted short of this goal and settled at convenient or promising locations along the way.Īt many places along the trail, alternate routes called “cutoffs” were established to shorten the trail or get around rugged terrain. The trail ended at Oregon City, Oregon, which was the proposed capital of the Oregon Territory at the time. While the first few parties organized and departed from Elm Grove, Missouri, the Oregon Trail’s generally designated starting point was Independence or Westport, Missouri. Hundreds of thousands more would follow, especially after gold was discovered in California in 1849. On May 22, 1843, with up to 1,000 settlers, livestock, and more, the Great Migration departed to follow the same route from Independence, Missouri, arriving in the Willamette Valley in a massive wagon train. On May 16, 1842, the first organized wagon train on the Oregon Trail set out from Elm Grove, Missouri, with more than 100 pioneers. By the 1830s, it was used regularly by mountain men, traders, missionaries, and military expeditions.Īt the same time, small groups of individuals and the occasional family attempted to follow the trail, with some succeeding in arriving at Fort Vancouver, Washington. The route of the Oregon Trail began to be scouted as early as 1823 by fur traders and explorers. Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth – Explorer, Fur Trader & Inventor Marcus Whitman – Missionary to the Cayuse Hall Jackson Kelley – Promoting the Oregon Trailĭr. George Donner – Leading the Infamous Donner Party Jim Bridger – Quintessential Guide of the Rocky MountainsĮphraim Brown – Murdered on the Oregon TrailĬorps of Discovery – The Lewis & Clark Expedition Crime and Punishment on the Overland Trailsīenjamin Bonneville – Exploring & Defending the American West