The Oregon Trail

One of the greatest emigrant trails to the Northwest was the Oregon Trail which ran from Independence, Missouri to the Columbia River in Oregon. It crossed 2000 miles of rugged terrain, including some of the fiercest Indian territory in the West.

The trail was first used by fur trappers, traders and missionaries, but in the 1840s the trail became jammed with emigrants moving west - wagon trains of 12,000 settlers in 10 years during the early settlement of the West.

The first overland settlers started on the Oregon Trail in 1841 with 70 emigrants from Independence, MO, following the route west along the Platte River, through the Rocky Mountains via the South Pass in Wyoming and then northwest to the Columbia River.  From then on, it was called the Oregon Trail.


In 1842 a larger group of 100 pioneers made the 2000 mile journey and the next year the number soared to 1000. The wagon train which left from Elm Grove, MO, included 100 wagons and a herd of 5000 oxen and cattle.  Dr. Elijah White, a Presbyterian missionary who had made the trip the year before served as the guide. During that year, 1843, a severe depression was hitting the Midwest and farmers in Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee hoped to find better lives in the reported paradise of Oregon.

The Oregon Trail was used the longest, even after railroads replaced much of the wagon routes in 1884, cattle and sheep drives found the trail a good path. Today there are still places that you can visit the deep ruts in the trail where wagon carried settlers west to a better life.

Next time...the Great Oregon Flood

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