Editing Oregon Trail (section)

==Other trails west==
There were other possible migration paths for early settlers, miners, or travelers to California or Oregon besides the Oregon trail before the establishment of the [[transcontinental railroad]]s.

From 1821 to 1846, the Hudson's Bay Company twice annually used the [[York Factory Express]] overland trade route from Fort Vancouver to [[Hudson Bay]] and then on to London. James Sinclair led a large party of nearly 200 settlers from the Red River Colony in 1841. These northern routes were largely abandoned after Britain ceded its claim to the southern Columbia River basin by way of the Oregon Treaty of 1846.

The longest trip was the voyage of about {{convert|13600|to|15000|mi|km}} on an uncomfortable sailing ship rounding the treacherous, cold, and dangerous Cape Horn between [[Antarctica]] and South America and then sailing on to California or Oregon. This trip typically took four to seven months (120 to 210 days) and cost about $350 to $500. The cost could be reduced to zero if you signed on as a crewman and worked as a common seaman. The hundreds of abandoned ships, whose crews had deserted in San Francisco Bay in 1849–50, showed many thousands chose to do this.

Other routes involved taking a ship to [[Colón, Panama]] (then called Aspinwall) and a strenuous, disease-ridden, five- to seven-day trip by canoe and mule over the Isthmus of Panama before catching a ship from [[Panama City, Panama]] to Oregon or California. This trip could be done from the East Coast theoretically in less than two months if all ship connections were made without waits and typically cost about $450/person. Catching a fatal disease was a distinct possibility as [[Ulysses S. Grant]] in 1852 learned when his unit of about 600 soldiers and some of their dependents traversed the Isthmus and lost about 120 men, women, and children.<ref>Brooks D. Simpson; Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph Over Adversity, 1822–1865; 2000, {{ISBN|978-0-395-65994-6}}, p. 55</ref> This passage was considerably sped up and made safer in 1855 when the Panama Railroad was completed at terrible cost in money and life across the Isthmus. The once treacherous {{convert|50|mi|km|adj=on}} trip could be done in less than a day. The time and the cost for transit dropped as regular paddle wheel steamships and sailing ships went from ports on the east coast and New Orleans, Louisiana, to Colón, Panama ($80–100), across the Isthmus of Panama by railroad ($25) and by paddle wheel steamships and sailing ships to ports in California and Oregon ($100–150).

Another route was established by [[Cornelius Vanderbilt]] across [[Nicaragua]] in 1849. The {{convert|120|mi|km|adj=on}} long [[San Juan River (Nicaragua)|San Juan River]] to the Atlantic Ocean helps drain the {{convert|100|mi|km|adj=on}} long [[Lake Nicaragua]]. From the western shore of Lake Nicaragua, it is only about {{convert|12|mi|km}} to the Pacific Ocean. Vanderbilt decided to use paddle wheel steamships from the U.S. to the San Juan River, small paddle wheel steam launches on the San Juan River, boats across Lake Nicaragua, and a stagecoach to the Pacific where connections could be made with another ship headed to California, Oregon, etc. Vanderbilt, by undercutting fares to the Isthmus of Panama and stealing many of the Panama Railroad workers, managed to attract roughly 30% of the California-bound steamboat traffic. All his connections in Nicaragua were never completely worked out before the Panama Railroad's completion in 1855. Civil strife in Nicaragua and payment to Cornelius Vanderbilt of a "non-compete" payment (bribe) of $56,000 per year killed the whole project in 1855.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.costarica-net-guide.com/vanderbilt.html |archive-url = https://archive.today/20060524001729/http://www.costarica-net-guide.com/vanderbilt.html |url-status = usurped |archive-date = May 24, 2006 |title = Nicaragua Route }}</ref>

Another possible route consisted of taking a ship to Mexico traversing the country and then catching another ship out of [[Acapulco, Mexico|Acapulco]], Mexico to California, etc. This route was used by some adventurous travelers but was not too popular because of the difficulties of making connections and the often hostile population along the way.

The [[Southern Emigrant Trail|Gila Trail]] going along the [[Gila River]] in [[Arizona]], across the [[Colorado River]] and then across the [[Sonora Desert]] in California was scouted by [[Stephen Kearny]]'s troops and later by Captain [[Philip St. George Cooke]]'s [[Mormon Battalion]] in 1846 who were the first to take a wagon the whole way. This route was used by many gold-hungry miners in 1849 and later suffered from the disadvantage that you had to find a way across the very wide and very dry Sonora Desert. It was used by many in 1849 and later as a winter crossing to California, despite its many disadvantages.

Running from 1857 to 1861, the Butterfield Stage Line won the $600,000/yr. U.S. mail contract to deliver mail to San Francisco, California. As dictated by southern Congressional members, the {{convert|2800|mi|km|adj=on}} route ran from [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]], Missouri through [[Arkansas]], [[Indian Territory|Oklahoma Indian Territory]], Texas, [[New Mexico Territory]], and across the Sonora Desert before ending in San Francisco, California. Employing over 800 at its peak, it used 250 [[Stagecoach#Concord stagecoaches|Concord Stagecoaches]] seating 12 very crowded passengers in three rows. It used 1,800 heads of stock, horses, and mules and 139 relay stations to ensure the stages ran day and night. A one-way fare of $200 delivered a very thrashed and tired passenger into San Francisco in 25 to 28 days. After traveling the route, ''[[New York Herald]]'' reporter Waterman Ormsby said, "I now know what Hell is like. I've just had 24 days of it."

The ultimate competitor arrived in 1869, the first transcontinental railroad, which cut travel time to about seven days at a low fare of about $60 (economy)<ref>[http://cprr.org/Museum/FAQs.html#Fare Railroad fares 1869] Retrieved February 22, 2009,</ref>