Editing Oregon Trail (section)

==History==

===Lewis and Clark Expedition===
{{Main|Lewis and Clark Expedition}}
[[File:Carte Lewis-Clark Expedition-en.png|thumb|upright=1.15|Route of the Lewis and Clark expedition]]

The first land route across the present-day contiguous United States was mapped by the Lewis and Clark Expedition between 1804 and 1806, following these 1803 instructions from President [[Thomas Jefferson]] to [[Meriwether Lewis]]: "The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, and such principal stream of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado and/or other river may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent, for commerce."<ref>{{cite book |author = Federal Writers Project |title = The Oregon Trail: The Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean |url = https://archive.org/stream/oregontrailthemi00fedemiss#page/215/mode/1up |series = American Guide Series | location = New York | publisher = Hastings House | via = Open Library | year = 1939 |page = 215 |access-date = January 11, 2013 }}</ref> Although Lewis and [[William Clark (explorer)|William Clark]] found a path to the Pacific Ocean, it was neither direct nor practicable for [[Covered wagon|prairie schooner wagons]] to pass through without considerable road work.<ref>{{cite web |last = Johnson |first = Randall A. |title = The Mullan Road: A Real Northwest Passage |publisher = History Ink |url = http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=9202 |format = Reprint of 1995 article in ''The Pacific Northwesterner'', Vol. 39, No. 2 |access-date = January 12, 2013 }}</ref> The two passes they found going through the [[Rocky Mountains]], [[Lemhi Pass]], and [[Lolo Pass (Idaho-Montana)|Lolo Pass]], turned out to be much too difficult.

On the return trip in 1806, they traveled from the Columbia River to the [[Snake River]] and the [[Clearwater River (Idaho)|Clearwater River]] over Lolo Pass again. They then traveled overland up the [[Blackfoot River (Idaho)|Blackfoot River]] and crossed the [[Continental Divide of the Americas|Continental Divide]] at Lewis and Clark Pass, as it would become known, and on to the head of the Missouri River. This was ultimately a shorter and faster route than the one they followed west. This route had the disadvantages of being much too rough for wagons and controlled by the [[Blackfoot Confederacy|Blackfoot]] tribes. Even though Lewis and Clark had only traveled a narrow portion of the upper Missouri River drainage and part of the Columbia River drainage, these were considered the two major rivers draining most of the Rocky Mountains, and the expedition confirmed that there was no "easy" route through the northern Rocky Mountains as Jefferson had hoped. Nonetheless, this famous expedition had mapped both the eastern and western river valleys (Platte and Snake Rivers) that bookend the route of the Oregon Trail (and other [[emigrant trail]]s) across the continental divide{{mdash}}they just had not located the [[South Pass (Wyoming)|South Pass]] or some of the interconnecting valleys later used in the high country. They did show the way for the [[mountain men]], who within a decade would find a better way across, even if it was not an easy way.

===Pacific Fur Company===
{{Main|Pacific Fur Company}}

Founded in 1810 by [[John Jacob Astor]] as a subsidiary of his [[American Fur Company]] (AFC), the [[Pacific Fur Company]] (PFC) operated in the [[Pacific Northwest]] in the [[North American fur trade]]. Two movements of PFC employees were planned by Astor: one sent to the Columbia River aboard the merchant ship ''[[Tonquin (1807)|Tonquin]],'' the other dispatched overland under an expedition led by [[Wilson Price Hunt]]. Hunt and his party were to find possible supply routes and trapping territories for further [[fur trade|fur trading]] posts. Upon arriving at the river in March 1811, the ''Tonquin'' crew began building what became [[Fort Astoria]]. The ship left supplies and men to continue work on the station and ventured north up the coast to [[Clayoquot Sound]] for a trading expedition. While anchored there, [[Jonathan Thorn]] insulted an elder [[Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations|Tla-o-qui-aht]] who was previously elected by the natives to negotiate a mutually satisfactory price for animal pelts. Soon after, the vessel was attacked and overwhelmed by the indigenous Clayoquot, killing many of the crew. Its [[Quinault people|Quinault]] interpreter survived and later told the PFC management at Fort Astoria of the destruction. The next day, the ship was blown up by surviving crew members.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url = http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/tonquin |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130606010101/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/tonquin |title = Tonquin |encyclopedia = The Canadian Encyclopedia |archive-date = June 6, 2013 |url-status = dead |access-date = May 11, 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wR_-aSFyvuYC&q=tonquin |title = The Canadian Encyclopedia |last = Marsh |first = James H. |date = 1999 |publisher = The Canadian Encyclopedia |isbn = 9780771020995 |language = en }}</ref>
[[File:U.S. Territorial Acquisitions.png|thumb|[[United States territorial acquisitions|U.S. territorial acquisitions]]{{endash}}portions of each territory were granted statehood since the 18th century.]]
Under Hunt, fearing attack by the [[Niitsitapi]], the overland expedition veered south of Lewis and Clark's route into what is now Wyoming and in the process passed across [[Union Pass]] and into [[Jackson Hole]], Wyoming. From there they went over the [[Teton Range]] via [[Teton Pass]] and then down to the Snake River into modern [[Idaho]]. They abandoned their horses at the Snake River, made dugout canoes, and attempted to use the river for transport. After a few days' travel, they soon discovered that steep canyons, waterfalls, and impassable rapids made travel by river impossible. Too far from their horses to retrieve them, they had to cache most of their goods and walk the rest of the way to the Columbia River where they made new boats and traveled to the newly established Fort Astoria. The expedition demonstrated that much of the route along the Snake River plain and across to the Columbia was passable by pack train or with minimal improvements, even wagons.<ref>{{cite web |title = Map of Astorian expedition, Lewis and Clark expedition, Oregon Trail, etc. in Pacific Northwest, etc |url = http://www.oregon.com/history/oregon_trail_maps.cfm |publisher = oregon.com |access-date = December 31, 2008 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090202113800/http://www.oregon.com/history/oregon_trail_maps.cfm |archive-date = February 2, 2009}}</ref> This knowledge would be incorporated into the concatenated trail segments as the Oregon Trail took its early shape.

Pacific Fur Company partner [[Robert Stuart (explorer)|Robert Stuart]] led a small group of men back east to report to Astor. The group planned to retrace the path followed by the overland expedition back up to the east following the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Fear of a Native American attack near Union Pass in Wyoming forced the group further south where they discovered South Pass, a wide and easy pass over the Continental Divide. The party continued east via the [[Sweetwater River (Wyoming)|Sweetwater River]], [[North Platte River]] (where they spent the winter of 1812–13), and [[Platte River]] to the Missouri River, finally arriving in St. Louis in the spring of 1813. The route they had used appeared to potentially be a practical wagon route, requiring minimal improvements, and Stuart's journals provided a meticulous account of most of the route.<ref>{{cite book |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=iefDlnjDeQgC |title = The Discovery of the Oregon Trail: Robert Stuart's Narratives of His Overland Trip Eastward from Astoria in 1812–13 |last = Rollins |first = Philip Ashton |publisher = University of Nebraska |year = 1995 |isbn = 978-0-8032-9234-5 }}</ref> Because of the [[War of 1812]] and the lack of U.S. fur trading posts in the Pacific Northwest, most of the route was unused for more than 10 years.

===North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company===
{{See also|North West Company|Hudson's Bay Company}}
[[File:Alfred Jacob Miller - Fort Laramie - Walters 37194049.jpg|thumb|The first [[Fort Laramie]] as it looked prior to 1840. Painting from memory by Alfred Jacob Miller]]

In August 1811, three months after [[Fort Astoria]] was established, [[David Thompson (explorer)|David Thompson]] and his team of North West Company explorers came floating down the Columbia to Fort Astoria. He had just completed a journey through much of western Canada and most of the Columbia River drainage system. He was mapping the country for possible fur trading posts. Along the way, he camped at the confluence of the Columbia and Snake Rivers and posted a notice claiming the land for Britain and stating the intention of the North West Company to build a fort on the site. When the War of 1812 broke out, the managers at Fort Astoria were concerned the British navy would seize their forts and supplies, and in 1813 they sold out to the North West Company.

By 1821, intense competition between the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] (HBC) and the North West Company reached the point of armed hostilities, and the British government pressured the two companies to merge. The newly reconfigured HBC had a near monopoly on trading (and most governing issues) in the Columbia District, or Oregon Country as it was referred to by the Americans, and also in [[Rupert's Land]]. That year the British parliament passed a statute applying the laws of [[Upper Canada]] to the district and giving the HBC power to enforce those laws.

From 1813 to the early 1840s the British, through the NWC and HBC, had nearly complete control of the Pacific Northwest and the western half of the Oregon Trail. In theory, the [[Treaty of Ghent]], which ended the War of 1812, restored possession of U.S. property in Oregon territory to the United States. "Joint occupation" of the region was formally established by the [[Anglo-American Convention of 1818]]. The British, through the HBC, tried to discourage any U.S. trappers, traders, and settlers from work or settlement in the Pacific Northwest.

[[File:Alfred Jacob Miller - Breaking up Camp at Sunrise - Walters 371940142.jpg|thumb|left|''Breaking up Camp at Sunrise'', by [[Alfred Jacob Miller]]]]

By overland travel, American missionaries and early settlers (initially mostly ex-trappers) started showing up in Oregon in the late 1820s. {{Citation needed|date=May 2013}} Although officially the HBC discouraged settlement because it interfered with its lucrative fur trade, its manager at Fort Vancouver, [[John McLoughlin]], gave substantial help, including employment, until they could get established. In the early 1840s thousands of American settlers arrived and soon greatly outnumbered the British settlers in Oregon.<ref name="Mackie1997">{{cite book |last = Mackie |first = Richard Somerset |title = Trading Beyond the Mountains: The British Fur Trade on the Pacific; 1793–1843 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VKXgJw6K088C&pg=PA318 |access-date = May 11, 2013 |year = 1997 |publisher = UBC Press |isbn = 978-0-7748-0613-8 |page = 318 }}</ref> McLoughlin, despite working for the HBC, gave help in the form of loans, medical care, shelter, clothing, food, supplies and seed to U.S. emigrants. These new emigrants often arrived in Oregon tired, worn out, nearly penniless, with insufficient food or supplies, just as winter was coming on. McLoughlin would later be hailed as the Father of Oregon.

The [[York Factory Express]], establishing another route to the Oregon territory, evolved from an earlier express brigade used by the North West Company between Fort Astoria and [[Fort William, Ontario|Fort William]], Ontario on [[Lake Superior]]. By 1825 the HBC started using two brigades, each setting out from opposite ends of the express route—one from [[Fort Vancouver]] on the Columbia River and the other from [[York Factory]] on Hudson Bay—in spring and passing each other in the middle of the continent. This established a "quick"&mdash; about 100 days for {{convert|2600|mi|km}} one way&mdash; to transport personnel and transmit messages between Fort Vancouver and York Factory on Hudson Bay.[[File:York-Factory-Express.png|thumb|HBC's York Factory Express trade route, 1820s to 1840s. Modern political boundaries shown.]]

The HBC built a new much larger Fort Vancouver in 1825 about 90 miles upstream from Fort Astoria, on the north side of the Columbia River (they were hoping the Columbia would be the future Canada–U.S. border). The fort quickly became the center of activity in the Pacific Northwest. Every year ships would come from London to the Pacific (via [[Cape Horn]]) to drop off supplies and trade goods in its trading posts in the Pacific Northwest and pick up the accumulated furs used to pay for these supplies. It was the nexus for the fur trade on the Pacific Coast; its influence reached from the Rocky Mountains to the [[Hawaiian Islands]], and from [[Russian Alaska]] into Mexican-controlled California. At its pinnacle in about 1840, the manager of Fort Vancouver watched over 34 outposts, 24 ports, 6 ships, and about 600 employees.

When American emigration over the Oregon Trail began in earnest in the early 1840s, for many settlers the fort became the last stop on the Oregon Trail where they could get supplies, aid, and help before starting their homesteads.<ref name="Mackie1997"/> Fort Vancouver was the main re-supply point for nearly all Oregon trail travelers until U.S. towns could be established. The HBC established [[Fort Colvile]] in 1825 on the Columbia River near [[Kettle Falls]] as a good site to collect furs and control the upper Columbia River fur trade.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.nwcouncil.org/history/FortColville.asp |title = Fort Colville |publisher = Nwcouncil.org |access-date = March 19, 2011 }}</ref> [[Fort Nisqually]] was built near the present town of [[DuPont, Washington|DuPont]], Washington, and was the first HBC fort on Puget Sound. [[Fort Victoria (British Columbia)|Fort Victoria]] was erected in 1843 and became the headquarters of operations in British Columbia, eventually growing into modern-day [[Victoria, British Columbia|Victoria]], the capital city of British Columbia.

[[File:Oregoncountry.png|thumb|left|The Oregon Country/Columbia District stretched from 42'N to 54 40'N. The most heavily disputed portion is highlighted.]]

By 1840, the HBC had three forts: [[Fort Hall]] (purchased from [[Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth]] in 1837), [[Fort Boise]] and [[Fort Nez Perce]] on the western end of the Oregon Trail route as well as Fort Vancouver near its terminus in the [[Willamette Valley]]. With minor exceptions, they all gave substantial and often desperately needed aid to the early Oregon Trail pioneers.

When the fur trade slowed in the 1840s because of fashion changes in men's hats, the value of the Pacific Northwest to the British was seriously diminished. Canada had few potential settlers who were willing to move more than {{convert|2500|mi|km}} to the Pacific Northwest, although several hundred ex-trappers, British and American, and their families did start settling in what became Oregon and Washington. In 1841, [[James Sinclair (fur trapper)|James Sinclair]], on orders from HBC Governor Sir [[George Simpson (administrator)|George Simpson]], guided nearly 200 settlers from the [[Red River Colony]] (located at the junction of the [[Assiniboine River]] and [[Red River of the North|Red River]] near present [[Winnipeg]], [[Manitoba]], Canada) into the Oregon territory.<ref>[http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~orgenweb/furtrade.html Red River Settlers in Oregon], Retrieved February 22, 2009</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url = https://www.newpghs.com/historical-maps |title = Area Histories: Historical Maps |website = North East Winnipeg Historical Society Inc. (2010) |access-date = October 12, 2017 }}</ref> This attempt at settlement failed when most of the families joined the settlers in the Willamette Valley, with their promise of free land and HBC-free government.

In 1846, the [[Oregon Treaty]] ending the [[Oregon boundary dispute]] was signed with Britain. The British lost much of the land they had so long controlled. The new [[Canada–United States border]] was established at the [[49th parallel north|49th parallel]] to the Pacific Coast, then dipping south around Vancouver Island. The treaty granted the HBC navigation rights on the Columbia River for supplying their fur posts, clear titles to their trading post properties allowing them to be sold later if they wanted, and left the British with a good anchorage at Victoria. It gave the United States most of what it wanted, a "reasonable" boundary and a good anchorage on the West Coast in Puget Sound. While there were few United States settlers in the future state of Washington in 1846, the United States had already demonstrated it could induce thousands of settlers to go to the Oregon Territory, and it would be only a short time before they would vastly outnumber the few hundred HBC employees and retirees living in the region.

===Great American Desert===
[[File:Trail ruts State Hist site Wyoming.jpg|thumb|[[Oregon Trail Ruts|Trail ruts]] near Guernsey, Wyoming]]

Reports from expeditions in 1806 by Lieutenant [[Zebulon Pike]] and in 1819 by Major [[Stephen Harriman Long|Stephen Long]] described the [[Great Plains]] as "unfit for human habitation" and as "The [[Great American Desert]]". These descriptions were mainly based on the relative lack of timber and surface water. The images of sandy wastelands conjured up by terms like "desert" were tempered by the many reports of vast herds of millions of [[Plains Bison]] that somehow managed to live in this "desert".<ref>It was not until later that the [[Ogallala Aquifer]] was discovered and used for irrigation, dry farming techniques developed and rail tracks laid.</ref> In the 1840s, the Great Plains appeared to be unattractive for settlement and were illegal for homesteading until well after 1846—initially, it was set aside by the U.S. government for Native American settlements. The next available land for general settlement, Oregon, appeared to be free for the taking and had fertile lands, disease-free climate ([[yellow fever]] and [[malaria]] were then prevalent in much of the Missouri and [[Mississippi River]] drainage), extensive forests, big rivers, potential seaports, and only a few nominally British settlers.

===Fur traders, trappers, and explorers===
Fur trappers, often working for fur traders, followed nearly all possible streams looking for beaver in the years (1812–40) when the fur trade was active.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.history.idaho.gov/Reference%20Series/0444.pdf |title = Idaho Fiur Trade |access-date = April 16, 2009 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090416142248/http://www.history.idaho.gov/Reference%20Series/0444.pdf |archive-date = April 16, 2009}}</ref> Fur traders included [[Manuel Lisa]], Robert Stuart, [[William Henry Ashley]], [[Jedediah Smith]], [[William Sublette]], [[Andrew Henry (fur trader)|Andrew Henry]], [[Thomas Fitzpatrick (trapper)|Thomas Fitzpatrick]], [[Kit Carson]], [[Jim Bridger]], [[Peter Skene Ogden]], [[David Thompson (explorer)|David Thompson]], [[James Douglas (governor)|James Douglas]], [[Donald Mackenzie (explorer)|Donald Mackenzie]], [[Alexander Ross (fur trader)|Alexander Ross]], [[James Sinclair (fur trader)|James Sinclair]], and other [[mountain man|mountain men]]. Besides describing and naming many of the rivers and mountains in the [[Intermountain West]] and Pacific Northwest, they often kept diaries of their travels and were available as guides and consultants when the trail started to become open for general travel. The fur trade business wound down to a very low level just as the Oregon trail traffic seriously began around 1840.

[[File:Alfred Jacob Miller - Our Camp - Walters 371940177.jpg|thumb|''Our Camp'', by Alfred Jacob Miller]]

In the fall of 1823, Jedediah Smith and Thomas Fitzpatrick led their trapping crew south from the [[Yellowstone River]] to the Sweetwater River. They were looking for a safe location to spend the winter. Smith reasoned since the Sweetwater flowed east it must eventually run into the Missouri River. Trying to transport their extensive fur collection down the Sweetwater and North Platte Rivers, they found after a near-disastrous canoe crash that the rivers were too swift and rough for water passage. On July 4, 1824, they cached their furs under a dome of rock they named [[Independence Rock (Wyoming)|Independence Rock]] and started their long trek on foot to the Missouri River. Upon arriving back in a settled area they bought pack horses (on credit) and retrieved their furs. They had discovered the route that Robert Stuart had taken in 1813—eleven years before. Thomas Fitzpatrick was often hired as a guide when the fur trade dwindled in 1840. Smith was killed by Comanche natives around 1831.

[[File:JedediahSmithEnglishVersion.png|thumb|left|The exploration of the West by [[Jedediah Smith]]]]

Up to 3,000 mountain men were [[animal trapping|trappers]] and [[Exploration|explorers]], employed by various British and United States fur companies or working as free trappers, who roamed the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 to the early 1840s. They usually traveled in small groups for mutual support and protection. Trapping took place in the fall when the fur became prime. Mountain men primarily trapped [[beaver]] and sold the skins. A good beaver skin could bring up to $4 at a time when a man's wage was often $1 per day. Some were more interested in exploring the West. In 1825, the first significant American [[Rocky Mountain Rendezvous|Rendezvous]] occurred on the Henry's Fork of the [[Green River (Colorado River)|Green River]]. The trading supplies were brought in by a large party using pack trains originating on the Missouri River. These pack trains were then used to haul out the fur bales. They normally used the north side of the Platte River—the same route used 20 years later by the [[Mormon Trail]]. For the next 15 years, the American rendezvous was an annual event moving to different locations, usually somewhere on the Green River in the future state of [[Wyoming]]. Each rendezvous, occurring during the slack summer period, allowed the fur traders to trade for and collect the furs from the trappers and their Native American allies without having the expense of building or maintaining a fort or wintering over in the cold Rockies. In only a few weeks at a rendezvous a year's worth of trading and celebrating would take place as the traders took their furs and remaining supplies back east for the winter and the trappers faced another fall and winter with new supplies. Trapper [[Jim Beckwourth]] described the scene as one of "Mirth, songs, dancing, shouting, trading, running, jumping, singing, racing, target-shooting, yarns, frolic, with all sorts of extravagances that white men or Indians could invent."<ref>Gowans, Fred R. ''Rocky Mountain Rendezvous'', p. 27. Gibbs Smith Publisher. {{ISBN|1-58685-756-8}}</ref> In 1830, William Sublette brought the first wagons carrying his trading goods up the Platte, North Platte, and Sweetwater rivers before crossing over South Pass to a fur trade rendezvous on the Green River near the future town of [[Big Piney, Wyoming|Big Piney]], Wyoming. He had a crew that dug out the gullies and river crossings and cleared the brush where needed. This established that the eastern part of most of the Oregon Trail was passable by wagons. In the late 1830s, the HBC instituted a policy intended to destroy or weaken the American fur trade companies. The HBC's annual collection and re-supply Snake River Expedition was transformed into a trading enterprise. Beginning in 1834, it visited the American Rendezvous to undersell the American traders—losing money but undercutting the American fur traders. By 1840 the fashion in Europe and Britain shifted away from the formerly very popular beaver felt hats and prices for furs rapidly declined and the trapping almost ceased.

[[File:Greenutrivermap.png|thumb|Map of the [[Green River (Colorado River)|Green River]] watershed]]

Fur traders tried to use the Platte River, the main route of the eastern Oregon Trail, for transport but soon gave up in frustration as its many channels and islands combined with its muddy waters were too shallow, crooked, and unpredictable to use for water transport. The Platte proved to be unnavigable. The Platte River and North Platte River Valley, however, became an easy roadway for wagons, with its nearly flat plain sloping easily up and heading almost due west.

Several U.S. government-sponsored explorers explored part of the Oregon Trail and wrote extensively about their explorations. Captain [[Benjamin Bonneville]] on his expedition of 1832 to 1834 explored much of the Oregon trail and brought wagons up the Platte, North Platte, Sweetwater route across South Pass to the Green River in Wyoming. He explored most of Idaho and the Oregon Trail to the Columbia. The account of his explorations in the West was published by [[Washington Irving]] in 1838.<ref>The Adventures of Captain Bonneville [[s: The Adventures of Captain Bonneville]]</ref> [[John C. Frémont]] of the [[Corps of Topographical Engineers|U.S. Army's Corps of Topographical Engineers]] and his guide Kit Carson led three expeditions from 1842 to 1846 over parts of California and Oregon. His explorations were written up by him and his wife [[Jessie Benton Frémont]] and were widely published. The first detailed maps of California and Oregon were drawn by Frémont and his [[Topography as the study of place|topographer]]s and [[Cartography|cartographers]] in about 1848.<ref>[http://www.davidrumsey.com/maps5489.html Frémont's Map of California and Oregon], Retrieved December 23, 2009</ref>

===Missionaries===
In 1834, The Dalles [[Methodist Mission]] was founded by Reverend [[Jason Lee (missionary)|Jason Lee]] just east of [[Mount Hood]] on the [[Columbia River]]. In 1836, [[Henry H. Spalding]] and [[Marcus Whitman]] traveled west to establish the [[Whitman Mission National Historic Site|Whitman Mission]] near modern-day [[Walla Walla, Washington|Walla Walla]], Washington.<ref>{{Cite web |url = http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/historical_records/dspDocument.cfm?doc_ID=1BD1D5D9-CBEA-5E8B-C0609C63D5C881B1 |title = Protestant Ladder |website = Oregon Historical Society |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120614055025/http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/historical_records/dspDocument.cfm?doc_ID=1BD1D5D9-CBEA-5E8B-C0609C63D5C881B1 |archive-date = June 14, 2012 }}</ref> The party included the wives of the two men, [[Narcissa Whitman]] and [[Eliza Hart Spalding]], who became the first European-American women to cross the Rocky Mountains. En route, the party accompanied American fur traders going to the 1836 rendezvous on the Green River in Wyoming and then joined Hudson's Bay Company fur traders traveling west to Fort Nez Perce (also called [[Fort Walla Walla]]). The group was the first to travel in wagons to Fort Hall, where the wagons were abandoned at the urging of their guides. They used pack animals for the rest of the trip to Fort Walla Walla and then floated by boat to Fort Vancouver to get supplies before returning to start their missions. Other missionaries, mostly husband and wife teams using wagon and pack trains, established missions in the Willamette Valley, as well as various locations in the future states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

===Early emigrants===
On May 1, 1839, a group of eighteen men from [[Peoria, Illinois]], set out with the intention of colonizing the Oregon country on behalf of the United States of America and driving out the HBC operating there. The men of the [[Peoria Party]] were among the first pioneers to traverse most of the Oregon Trail. They were initially led by [[Thomas J. Farnham]] and called themselves the [[Oregon Dragoons]]. They carried a large flag emblazoned with their motto "''Oregon Or The Grave''". Although the group split up near [[Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site|Bent's Fort]] on the [[South Platte]] and Farnham was deposed as leader, nine of their members eventually did reach Oregon.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.oregonpioneers.com/1839.htm |title = Oregon Emigrants 1839 |publisher = Oregonpioneers.com |access-date = May 20, 2012 }}</ref>

In September 1840, [[Robert Newell (politician)|Robert Newell]], [[Joseph L. Meek]], and their families reached Fort Walla Walla with three wagons that they had driven from Fort Hall. Their wagons were the first to reach the Columbia River over land, and they opened the final leg of the Oregon Trail to wagon traffic.<ref>{{Cite web |url = http://www.historylink.org/File/5235 |title = Robert Newell and Joseph Meek reach Fort Walla Walla |last = Oldham |first = Kit |date = 2003 |website = www.historylink.org |access-date = October 12, 2017 }}</ref>

In 1841, the [[Bartleson-Bidwell Party]] was the first emigrant group credited with using the Oregon Trail to emigrate west. The group set out for California, but about half the party left the original group at [[Soda Springs, Idaho|Soda Springs]], Idaho, and proceeded to the Willamette Valley in Oregon, leaving their wagons at Fort Hall.

On May 16, 1842, the second organized wagon train set out from Elm Grove, Missouri, with more than 100 pioneers.<ref>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 105.</ref> The party was led by [[Elijah White]]. The group broke up after passing Fort Hall with most of the single men hurrying ahead and the families following later.

===Great Migration of 1843===
[[File:ColumbiaAmericasGreatHighway040.png|thumb|A wagon lashed to a raft for the last stage of the emigration.]]

In what was dubbed "The Great Migration of 1843" or the "Wagon Train of 1843", an estimated 700 to 1,000 emigrants left for Oregon.<ref>{{Cite web |url = http://www.peak.org/~mransom/pioneers.html |title = The Wagon Train of 1843: The Great Migration |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080531061021/http://www.peak.org/~mransom/pioneers.html |archive-date = May 31, 2008 |access-date = December 22, 2007 }}</ref><ref>[https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/events/1840_1850.htm Events in The West: 1840–1850] PBS. Retrieved December 22, 2007.</ref> They were led initially by John Gantt, a former U.S. Army captain and fur trader who was contracted to guide the train to Fort Hall for $1 per person. The winter before, Marcus Whitman had made a brutal midwinter trip from Oregon to St. Louis to appeal a decision by his mission backers to abandon several of the Oregon missions. He joined the wagon train at the Platte River for the return trip. When the pioneers were told at Fort Hall by agents from the Hudson's Bay Company that they should abandon their wagons there and use pack animals the rest of the way, Whitman disagreed and volunteered to lead the wagons to Oregon. He believed the wagon trains were large enough that they could build whatever road improvements they needed to make the trip with their wagons. The biggest obstacle they faced was in the [[Blue Mountains (Oregon)|Blue Mountains]] of Oregon, where they had to cut and clear a trail through heavy timber. The wagons were stopped at [[The Dalles, Oregon|The Dalles]], Oregon, by the lack of a road around Mount Hood. The wagons had to be disassembled and floated down the treacherous Columbia River and the animals herded over the rough [[Lolo Pass (Oregon)|Lolo trail]] to get by Mt. Hood. Nearly all of the settlers in the 1843 wagon trains arrived in the Willamette Valley by early October. A passable wagon trail now existed from the Missouri River to The Dalles. Jesse Applegate's account of the emigration, "[[A Day with the Cow Column in 1843]]", has been described as "the best bit of literature left to us by any participant in the [Oregon] pioneer movement..."<ref>{{cite journal|title=Reviews|journal=Oregon Historical Quarterly|volume=34|number=4|year=1935}}</ref> and has been republished several times from 1868 to 1990.<ref>{{cite journal |title=[[wikisource:en:Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 1/A Day with the Cow Column in 1843|A Day with the Cow Column in 1843]] |journal=Oregon Historical Quarterly |year=1900 }}</ref>

In 1846, the [[Barlow Road]] was completed around Mount Hood, providing a rough but completely passable wagon trail from the Missouri River to the Willamette Valley, about {{convert|2000|mi|km}}.

===Oregon Country===
In 1843, settlers of the Willamette Valley drafted the [[Organic Laws of Oregon]] organizing land claims within the Oregon Country. Married couples were granted at no cost (except for the requirement to work and improve the land) up to {{convert|640|acre|km2}} (a [[Section (United States land surveying)|section]] or square mile), and unmarried settlers could claim {{convert|320|acre|km2}}. As the group was a provisional government with no authority, these claims were not valid under United States or British law, but they were eventually honored by the United States in the [[Donation Land Act]] of 1850. The Donation Land Act provided for married settlers to be granted {{convert|320|acre|km2}} and unmarried settlers {{convert|160|acre|km2}}. Following the expiration of the act in 1854 the land was no longer free but cost $1.25 per acre ($3.09/hectare) with a limit of {{convert|320|acre|km2}}—the same as most other unimproved government land.

===Women on the Overland Trail===
Consensus interpretations, as found in John Faragher's book, ''Women and Men on the Overland Trail'' (1979), held that men's and women's power within marriage was uneven.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Faragher |first1=John Mack |title=Women and Men on the Overland Trail |date=2001 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=0300089244}}</ref> This meant that women did not experience the trail as liberating, but instead only found harder work than they had handled back east, all the while upholding the virtues of the [[Culture of Domesticity]]. Some of the additional tasks women had on the wagon trail included collecting "buffalo
chips" for fire fuel, unloading and loading up the wagons, driving teams of oxen, pouring
bullets to help in Indian attacks, and striving to keep their men and children at
peace. They were the backbones of life on the wagon trail and took up not only their
regular duties but many duties of men as well.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schlissel |first1=Lillian |title=Mothers and Daughters on the Western Frontier |journal=Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies |volume=3}}</ref> However, feminist scholarship, by historians such as Lillian Schlissel,<ref>Lillian Schlissel, "Women's diaries on the western frontier." ''American Studies'' (1977): 87–100 [https://journals.ku.edu/index.php/amerstud/article/viewFile/2301/2260 online].</ref> Sandra Myres,<ref>Sandra L. Myres, ed., '' Ho for California!: Women's Overland Diaries from the Huntington Library'' (Huntington Library Press, 1980)</ref> and Glenda Riley,<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 969452 |title = The Specter of a Savage: Rumors and Alarmism on the Overland Trail |journal = The Western Historical Quarterly |volume = 15 |issue = 4 |pages = 427–444 |last1 = Riley |first1 = Glenda |year = 1984 |doi = 10.2307/969452 }}</ref> suggests men and women did not view the West and western migration in the same way. Whereas men might deem the dangers of the trial acceptable if there was a strong economic reward at the end, women viewed those dangers as threatening to the stability and survival of the family. Once they arrived at their new Western home, women's public role in building Western communities and participating in the Western economy gave them a greater authority than they had known back East. There was a "female frontier" that was distinct and different from that experienced by men.<ref>Kenneth L. Holmes, ''Covered Wagon Women,'' Volume 1, Introduction by Anne M. Butler, ebook version, University of Nebraska Press, (1983) pp 1–10.</ref>

Women's diaries kept during their travels or the letters they wrote home once they arrived at their destination support these contentions. Women wrote with sadness and concern about the numerous deaths along the trail. Anna Maria King wrote to her family in 1845 about her trip to the [[Luckiamute River|Luckiamute Valley]] Oregon and of the multiple deaths experienced by her traveling group:

<blockquote>But listen to the deaths: Sally Chambers, John King, and his wife, their little daughter Electa and their babe, a son 9 months old, and Dulancy C. Norton's sister are gone. Mr. A. Fuller lost his wife and daughter Tabitha. Eight of our two families have gone to their long home.<ref>From the letter of Anna Maria King, in Covered Wagon Women, Volume 1, by Kenneth L. Holmes, ebook version, University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln, 1983, p. 41.</ref></blockquote>

Similarly, emigrant [[Martha Gay Masterson]], who traveled the trail with her family at the age of 13, mentioned the fascination she and other children felt for the graves and loose skulls they would find near their camps.<ref>Peavy, Linda S. & Ursula Smith. ''Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier''. University of Oklahoma Press, 1998, p. 40.</ref>

Anna Maria King, like many other women, also advised family and friends back home of the realities of the trip and offered advice on how to prepare for the trip. Women also reacted and responded, often enthusiastically, to the landscape of the West. Betsey Bayley, in a letter to her sister, Lucy P. Griffith, described how travelers responded to the new environment they encountered:

<blockquote>The mountains looked like volcanoes and the appearance that one day there had been an awful thundering of volcanoes and a burning world. The valleys were all covered with a white crust and looked like [[salaratus]]. Some of the companies used it to raise their bread.<ref>From the letter of Betsey Bayley, in ''Covered Wagon Women,'' Volume 1, by Kenneth L. Holmes, ebook version, University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln, 1983, p. 35.</ref></blockquote>

While women experienced many deaths and hardships on the trail, the trail was also a place for women to take on roles they had previously not been allowed to take on back east. Women started to use their journals on the trails to express themselves as "reporters, guides, poets, and historians." They would jot down botany and different species on the trail to help feed their family. Women used their resourcefulness and creativity on the trail.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bledsoe |first1=Lucy Jane |title=Adventuresome Women on the Oregon Trail: 1840-1867 |journal=Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies |year=1984 |volume=7 |issue=3|pages=22–29 |doi=10.2307/3346237 |jstor=3346237 }}</ref>

===Mormon emigration===
{{Main|Mormon Trail}}

Following persecution and mob action in [[Missouri]], [[Illinois]], and other states, and the assassination of their prophet [[Joseph Smith]] in 1844, [[Mormon]] leader [[Brigham Young]] led settlers in the [[Latter Day Saints]] (LDS) church west to the [[Salt Lake Valley]] in present-day Utah. In 1847 Young led a small, fast-moving group from their [[Winter Quarters, Nebraska|Winter Quarters]] encampments near [[Omaha, Nebraska|Omaha]], Nebraska, and their approximately 50 temporary settlements on the Missouri River in [[Iowa]] including [[Council Bluffs]].<ref>{{Cite web |url = http://winterquarters.byu.edu/pages/settlements.htm |title = Mormons in Iowa towns |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110719155702/http://winterquarters.byu.edu/pages/settlements.htm |archive-date = July 19, 2011 |access-date = January 5, 2009 }}</ref> About 2,200 LDS pioneers went that first year; they were charged with establishing farms, growing crops, building fences and herds, and establishing preliminary settlements to feed and support the many thousands of emigrants expected in the coming years. After ferrying across the Missouri River and establishing wagon trains near what became Omaha, the Mormons followed the northern bank of the Platte River in [[Nebraska]] to [[Fort Laramie]] in present-day Wyoming. They initially started in 1848 with trains of several thousand emigrants, which were rapidly split into smaller groups to be more easily accommodated at the limited springs and acceptable camping places on the trail. The much larger presence of women and children meant these wagon trains did not try to cover as much ground in a single day as Oregon and California-bound emigrants, typically taking about 100 days to cover the {{convert|1000|mi|km}} trip to Salt Lake City. (The Oregon and California emigrants averaged about {{convert|15|mi|km}} per day.) In Wyoming, the Mormon emigrants followed the main Oregon/California/Mormon Trail through Wyoming to [[Fort Bridger]], where they split from the main trail and followed (and improved) the rough path known as [[Hastings Cutoff]], used by the ill-fated [[Donner Party]] in 1846.

Between 1847 and 1860, over 43,000 Mormon settlers and tens of thousands of travelers on the [[California Trail]] and Oregon Trail followed Young to Utah. After 1848, the travelers headed to California or Oregon resupplied at the Salt Lake Valley, and then went back over the [[Salt Lake Cutoff]], rejoining the trail near the future Idaho–Utah border at the [[City of Rocks National Reserve|City of Rocks]] in Idaho.

Along the Mormon Trail, the Mormon pioneers established several ferries and made trail improvements to help later travelers and earn much-needed money. One of the better-known ferries was the Mormon Ferry across the North Platte near the future site of [[Fort Caspar]] in Wyoming which operated between 1848 and 1852 and the [[Green River, Utah|Green River]] ferry near Fort Bridger which operated from 1847 to 1856. The ferries were free for Mormon settlers while all others were charged a toll ranging from $3 to $8.

===California gold rush===
{{Main|California Trail}}

In January 1848, James Marshall found gold in the Sierra Nevada portion of the [[American River]], sparking the [[California gold rush]].{{sfnp|Peters|1996|p=[https://archive.org/details/seventrailswest00pete/page/109 109]}} It is estimated that about two-thirds of the male population in Oregon went to California in 1848 to cash in on the opportunity. To get there, they helped build the Lassen Branch of the Applegate-Lassen Trail by cutting a wagon road through extensive forests. Many returned with significant gold which helped jump-start the Oregon economy. Over the next decade, gold seekers from the [[Midwest|Midwestern United States]] and [[East Coast of the United States]] dramatically increased traffic on the Oregon and California Trails. The "forty-niners" often chose speed over safety and opted to use shortcuts such as the [[Sublette Cutoff|Sublette-Greenwood Cutoff]] in Wyoming which reduced travel time by almost seven days but spanned nearly {{convert|45|mi|km}} of the desert without water, grass, or fuel for fires.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://americanwest.com/trails/pages/oretrail.htm |title =  Oregon Trail |website = American West |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101205115352/http://americanwest.com/trails/pages/oretrail.htm |archive-date = December 5, 2010 }}</ref> 1849 was the first year of large scale [[cholera]] epidemics in the United States, and thousands are thought to have died along the trail on their way to California—most buried in unmarked graves in Kansas and Nebraska. The adjusted<ref>{{cite web |quote=The 1850 U.S. California Census, the first census that included everyone, showed only about 7,019 females with 4,165 non-native females older than 15 in the state. To find a "correct" census there should be added about 20,000 men and about 1,300 females from San Francisco, Santa Clara, and Contra Costa counties whose censuses were lost and not included in the official totals. |url=http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1850a-01.pdf |title=U.S. Seventh Census 1850: California |access-date=August 18, 2011}}</ref> 1850 U.S. census of California showed this rush was overwhelmingly male with about 112,000 males to 8,000 females (with about 5,500 women over age 15).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1850a-01.pdf |title=U.S. Seventh Census 1850: California |access-date=August 18, 2011}}</ref> Women were significantly underrepresented [[Women in the California gold rush|in the California gold rush]], and sex ratios did not reach essential equality in California (and other western states) until about 1950. The relative scarcity of women gave them many opportunities to do many more things that were not normally considered women's work of this era. {{citation needed|date=December 2021}} After 1849, the California gold rush continued for several years as the miners continued to find about $50,000,000 worth of gold per year at $21 per ounce.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/greeley/railroad_to_pacific.html |title = An Overland Journey from New York to San Francisco in the Summer of 1859 |last = Greeley |first = Horace |website = www.yosemite.ca.us |access-date = October 13, 2017 }}</ref> Once California was established as a prosperous state, many thousands more emigrated there each year for the opportunities.

===Later emigration and uses of the trail===
The trail was still in use during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], but traffic declined after 1855 when the [[Panama Railroad]] across the [[Isthmus of Panama]] was completed. Paddle wheel steamships and sailing ships, often heavily subsidized to carry the mail, provided rapid transport to and from the East Coast and [[New Orleans]], Louisiana, to and from [[Panama]] to ports in California and Oregon.

Over the years many ferries were established to help get across the many rivers on the path of the Oregon Trail. Multiple ferries were established on the Missouri River, [[Kansas River]], [[Little Blue River (Kansas/Nebraska)|Little Blue River]], [[Elkhorn River]], [[Loup River]], Platte River, [[South Platte River]], North Platte River, [[Laramie River]], Green River, [[Bear River (Great Salt Lake)|Bear River]], two crossings of the Snake River, [[John Day River]], [[Deschutes River (Oregon)|Deschutes River]], Columbia River, as well as many other smaller streams. During peak immigration periods several ferries on any given river often competed for pioneer dollars. These ferries significantly increased speed and safety for Oregon Trail travelers. They increased the cost of traveling the trail by roughly $30 per wagon but decreased the time of transit from about 160 to 170 days in 1843 to 120 to 140 days in 1860. Ferries also helped prevent death by drowning at river crossings.{{sfnp|Unruh|1993|p=410}}

In April 1859, an expedition of [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers]] led by Captain [[James H. Simpson]] left Camp Floyd, [[Utah]], to establish an army supply route across the [[Great Basin]] to the eastern slope of the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierras]]. Upon return in early August, Simpson reported that he had surveyed the [[Central Overland Route]] from [[Camp Floyd]] to [[Genoa, Nevada]]. This route went through central Nevada (roughly where [[U.S. Route 50 in Nevada|U.S. Route 50]] goes today) and was about {{convert|280|mi|km}} shorter than the "standard" [[Humboldt River]] [[California trail]] route.<ref>{{Cite report |last = Simpson |first = J. H. |author-link = James H. Simpson |year = 1876 |title = Report of Explorations across the Great Basin of the Territory of Utah |place = Washington, D.C. |publisher = U.S. Government Printing Office |pages = [https://archive.org/details/reportexplorati00simpgoog/page/n27 25]–26 |url = https://archive.org/details/reportexplorati00simpgoog }}</ref>

[[File:CentralNevadaRoute.gif|thumb|The Central Route in [[Genoa, Nevada|Nevada]]]]

The Army improved the trail for use by wagons and [[stagecoach]]es in 1859 and 1860. Starting in 1860, the American Civil War closed the heavily subsidized [[Butterfield Overland Mail]] stage Southern Route through the deserts of the American Southwest.

In 1860–1861, the [[Pony Express]], employing riders traveling on horseback day and night with relay stations about every {{convert|10|mi|km}} to supply fresh horses, was established from [[St. Joseph, Missouri]], to [[Sacramento, California]]. The Pony Express built many of their eastern stations along the Oregon/California/Mormon/Bozeman Trails and many of their western stations along the very sparsely settled [[Central Overland Route]] across Utah and Nevada.<ref name="Pony Express">[http://www.fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/trails/natltrails.pdf Pony Express Trail maps], Retrieved January 28, 2009</ref> The Pony Express delivered mail summer and winter in roughly 10 days from the midwest to California.

In 1861, [[John Warren Butterfield|John Butterfield]], who since 1858 had been using the Butterfield Overland Mail, also switched to the Central Route to avoid traveling through hostile territories during the American Civil War. [[George Chorpenning]] immediately realized the value of this more direct route, and shifted his existing mail and passenger line along with their stations from the "Northern Route" (California Trail) along the Humboldt River. In the same year, the [[first transcontinental telegraph]] also laid its lines alongside the Central Overland Route. Several stage lines were set up carrying mail and passengers that traversed much of the route of the original Oregon Trail to Fort Bridger and from there over the Central Overland Route to California. By traveling day and night with many stations and changes of teams (and extensive mail subsidies), these stages could get passengers and mail from the Midwest to California in about 25 to 28 days. This combined stage and Pony Express stations along the Oregon Trail and Central Route across Utah and Nevada were joined by the first transcontinental telegraph stations and telegraph line, which followed much the same route in 1861 from [[Carson City, Nevada]] to [[Salt Lake City]]. The Pony Express folded in 1861 as they failed to receive an expected mail contract from the U.S. government and the telegraph filled the need for rapid east-west communication. This combination wagon/stagecoach/pony express/telegraph line route is labeled the ''Pony Express National Historic Trail'' on the National Trail Map.<ref name="Pony Express"/> From Salt Lake City the telegraph line followed much of the Mormon/California/Oregon trails to Omaha, Nebraska.

[[File: Oregon Trail pic.jpg|thumb|left|Covered wagon replica and Mission Monument at the [[Whitman Mission National Historic Site]] about ten miles west of Walla Walla, Washington]]

After the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, telegraph lines usually followed the railroad tracks as the required relay stations and telegraph lines were much easier to maintain alongside the tracks. Telegraph lines to unpopulated areas were largely abandoned.

As the years passed, the Oregon Trail became a heavily used corridor from the Missouri River to the Columbia River. Offshoots of the trail continued to grow as gold and silver discoveries, farming, lumbering, ranching, and business opportunities resulted in much more traffic to many areas. Traffic became two-directional as towns were established along the trail. By 1870, the population in the states served by the Oregon Trail and its offshoots increased by about 350,000 over their 1860 census levels. Except for most of the 180,000 population increase in California, most of these people living away from the coast traveled over parts of the Oregon Trail and its many extensions and cutoffs to get to their new residences.

Even before the famous Texas [[Cattle drives in the United States|cattle drives]] after the Civil War, the trail was being used to drive herds of thousands of cattle, horses, sheep, and goats from the Midwest to various towns and cities along the trails. According to studies by trail historian John Unruh the livestock may have been as plentiful or more plentiful than the immigrants in many years.<ref>{{cite book |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hM2_IXMY3jQC |title = The Plains Across the Overland Emigrants and Trans-Mississippi West 1840–1860 |last = Unruh |first = John D |publisher = University of Illinois Press |year = 1993 |isbn = 978-0-252-06360-2 |pages = 392, 512 }}</ref> In 1852, there were even records of a 1,500-turkey drive from Illinois to California.<ref>Barry, Louise. ''The Beginnings of the West''. 1972. pp 1084–1085</ref> The main reason for this livestock traffic was the large cost discrepancy between livestock in the Midwest and at the end of the trail in California, Oregon, or Montana. They could often be bought in the Midwest for about a third to tenth of what they would fetch at the end of the trail. Large losses could occur and the drovers would still make significant profit. As the emigrant travel on the trail declined in later years and after livestock ranches were established at many places along the trail large herds of animals often were driven along part of the trail to get to and from markets.

===Trail decline===
The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, providing faster, safer, and usually cheaper travel east and west (the journey took seven days and cost as little as $65, or {{Inflation|US|65|1870|fmt=eq}}).<ref>{{Cite web |url = http://www.shmoop.com/did-you-know/history/us/transcontinental-railroad/statistics.html |title = Railroad ticket 1870 Transcontinental Railroad Statistics |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090624020241/http://www.shmoop.com/did-you-know/history/us/transcontinental-railroad/statistics.html |archive-date = June 24, 2009 |access-date = January 21, 2009 }}</ref> Some emigrants continued to use the trail well into the 1890s, and modern highways and railroads eventually paralleled large portions of the trail, including [[U.S. Highway 26]], [[Interstate 84 (west)|Interstate 84]] in Oregon and Idaho and [[Interstate 80]] in Nebraska. Contemporary interest in the overland trek has prompted the states and federal government to preserve landmarks on the trail including wagon ruts, buildings, and "registers" where emigrants carved their names. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, there have been several re-enactments of the trek with participants wearing period garments and traveling by wagon.