Editing Oregon Trail

{{Short description|Historic migration route spanning Independence, MO–Oregon City, OR}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use American English|date=April 2025}}
{{pp-pc}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox protected area
| name            = The Oregon Trail 
| photo           = Wpdms nasa topo oregon trail.jpg
| photo_caption   = The route of the Oregon Trail shown on a map of the western United States from Independence, Missouri (on the eastern end) to Oregon City, Oregon (on the western end)
| map_image       = Oregontrail 1907.jpg
| map_caption     = Map from ''The Ox Team, or the Old Oregon Trail 1852–1906'', by [[Ezra Meeker]]
| location        = [[Missouri]], [[Kansas]], [[Nebraska]], [[Wyoming]], [[Idaho]], [[Washington (state)|Washington]], [[Oregon]]
| established     = 1830s by [[mountain man|mountain men]] of [[fur trade]], widely publicized by 1843
| visitation_num  = 
| visitation_year =
| governing_body  = [[National Park Service]]
| website         = [https://www.nps.gov/oreg Oregon National Historic Trail]
}}

The '''Oregon Trail''' was a {{convert|2170|mi|km|adj=on}}<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.blm.gov/or/oregontrail/history-basics.php |title = Basic Facts About the Oregon Trail |date = n.d. |publisher = Bureau of Land Management |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084450/http://www.blm.gov/or/oregontrail/history-basics.php |archive-date = March 4, 2016 |access-date = May 12, 2016 }}</ref> east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and [[Westward Expansion Trails|emigrant trail]] in North America that connected the [[Missouri River]] to valleys in [[Oregon Territory]]. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail crossed what is now the states of [[Kansas]], [[Nebraska]], and [[Wyoming]]. The western half crossed the current states of [[Idaho]] and Oregon.

The Oregon Trail was laid by [[fur trade]]rs and trappers from about 1811 to 1840 and was initially only passable on foot or horseback. By 1836, when the first migrant [[wagon train]] was organized in [[Independence, Missouri]], a wagon trail had been cleared to [[Fort Hall]], Idaho. Wagon trails were cleared increasingly farther west and eventually reached the [[Willamette Valley]] in Oregon, at which point what came to be called the Oregon Trail was complete, though further improvements in the forms of bridges, cutoffs, ferries, and roads would make the trip faster and safer. From various starting points in Iowa, Missouri, or [[Nebraska Territory]], the routes converged along the lower [[Platte River Valley]] near [[Fort Kearny]], Nebraska Territory. They led to fertile farmlands west of the [[Rocky Mountains]].

The Oregon Trail and its many offshoots were used by about 400,000 settlers, farmers, miners, ranchers, and business owners and their families to get to the area known as Oregon and its surroundings, with traffic especially thick from 1846 to 1869. The eastern half of the trail was also used by travelers on the [[California Trail]] (from 1843), [[Mormon Trail]] (from 1847), and [[Bozeman Trail]] (from 1863) before turning off to their separate destinations. Use of the trail declined after the [[first transcontinental railroad]] was completed in 1869, making the trip west substantially faster, cheaper, and safer. Since the mid-20th century, modern highways, such as [[Interstate 80]] and [[Interstate 84 (Oregon–Utah)|Interstate 84]], follow parts of the same course westward and pass through towns originally established to serve those using the Oregon Trail.

==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.

==Routes==
{{Oregon Trail map}}
[[File:South pass marker2.jpg|thumb|Oregon Trail pioneer [[Ezra Meeker]] erected this boulder near [[Pacific Creek (Sweetwater County, Wyoming)|Pacific Springs]] on Wyoming's [[South Pass (Wyoming)|South Pass]] in 1906.<ref>'' Ventures and Adventures of Ezra Meeker: Or, Sixty Years of Frontier Life'' by Ezra Meeker. Rainer Printing Company 1908. {{ASIN|B000861WA8}}</ref>]]

As the trail developed it became marked by many cutoffs and shortcuts from Missouri to Oregon. The basic route follows river valleys as grass and water were necessary.

While the first few parties organized and departed from Elm Grove, the Oregon Trail's primary starting points were [[Independence, Missouri]], or [[Westport, Kansas City, Missouri|Westport]], (which was annexed into modern day [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]]), on the Missouri River. Later, several feeder trails led across Kansas, and other towns became notable starting points, including [[Weston, Missouri|Weston]], [[Fort Leavenworth, Kansas|Fort Leavenworth]], [[Atchison, Kansas|Atchison]], St. Joseph, and Omaha.

The Oregon Trail's nominal termination point was [[Oregon City, Oregon|Oregon City]], at the time the proposed capital of the [[Oregon Territory]]. However, many settlers branched off or stopped short of this goal and settled at convenient or promising locations along the trail. Commerce with pioneers going further west helped establish these early settlements and launched local economies critical to their prosperity.

At dangerous or difficult river crossings, ferries or toll bridges were set up and bad places on the trail were either repaired or bypassed. Several toll roads were constructed. Gradually the trail became easier with the average trip (as recorded in numerous diaries) dropping from about 160 days in 1849 to 140 days 10 years later.{{Citation needed|date=July 2011}}

Many other trails followed the Oregon Trail for much of its length, including the [[Mormon Trail]] from Illinois to Utah; the [[California Trail]] to the gold fields of [[California]]; and the [[Bozeman Trail]] to [[Montana]]. Because it was more a network of trails than a single trail, there were numerous variations with other trails eventually established on both sides of the Platte, North Platte, Snake, and Columbia rivers. With literally thousands of people and thousands of livestock traveling in a fairly small time slot, the travelers had to spread out to find clean water, wood, good campsites, and grass. The dust kicked up by the many travelers was a constant complaint, and where the terrain would allow it there may have been between 20 and 50 wagons traveling abreast.

Remnants of the trail in Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon have been listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]], and the entire trail is a designated [[National Historic Trail]].

===Missouri===
Initially, the main jumping-off point was the common head of the [[Santa Fe Trail]] and Oregon trail&mdash; Independence, and [[Kansas City, Kansas|Kansas City]]. Travelers starting in Independence had to ferry across the Missouri River. After following the Santa Fe trail to near present-day [[Topeka, Kansas|Topeka]], they ferried across the Kansas River to start the trek across [[Kansas]] and points west. Another busy "jumping off point" was [[St. Joseph, Missouri|St. Joseph]]—established in 1843.<ref name="travel">{{cite web |url = http://north-america.traveltoworld.com/north-america-travel-guide/5317/saint-peters-missouri/ |title = Saint Peters: Missouri |access-date = August 30, 2007 |publisher = North America Travel Guide |author = North America Travel Guide |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071006123625/http://north-america.traveltoworld.com/north-america-travel-guide/5317/saint-peters-missouri/ |archive-date = October 6, 2007 |url-status = dead }}</ref> In its early days, St. Joseph was a bustling outpost and rough frontier town, serving as one of the last supply points before heading over the Missouri River to the frontier. St. Joseph had good steamboat connections to St. Louis and other ports on the combined [[Ohio River|Ohio]], [[Missouri River|Missouri]], and Mississippi River systems. During the busy season, there were several ferry boats and steamboats available to transport travelers to the Kansas shore where they started their travels westward. Before the [[Union Pacific Railroad]] was started in 1865, St. Joseph was the westernmost point in the United States accessible by rail. Other towns used as supply points in Missouri included Old Franklin, [[Arrow Rock, Missouri|Arrow Rock]], and [[Fort Osage]].<ref>{{Cite web |url = http://www.santafetrailresearch.com/spacepix/franklin-mo.html |title = Franklin Missouri The Beginning of the Santa Fe Trail |last = Larry and Carolyn |website = www.santafetrailresearch.com |access-date = October 13, 2017 |archive-date = October 9, 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171009105629/http://www.santafetrailresearch.com/spacepix/franklin-mo.html |url-status = dead }}</ref>

===Iowa===
[[File:Bison Bull in Nebraska.jpg|thumb|A bison bull on a [[Nebraska]] wildlife refuge]]

The [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]] stopped several times in the future state of Iowa on their 1805–1806 expedition to the west coast. Some settlers started drifting into Iowa in 1833. In 1846, the [[Mormons]], expelled from [[Nauvoo, Illinois]], traversed Iowa (on part of the Mormon Trail) and settled temporarily in significant numbers on the Missouri River in Iowa and the future state of Nebraska at their [[Winter Quarters (North Omaha, Nebraska)|Winter Quarters]] near the future city of Omaha, Nebraska.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://winterquarters.byu.edu/pages/settlements.htm |title = Winter Quarters Project |publisher = Winterquarters.byu.edu |access-date = March 19, 2011 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110719155702/http://winterquarters.byu.edu/pages/settlements.htm |archive-date = July 19, 2011}}</ref> The Mormons established about 50 temporary towns including the town of Kanesville, Iowa (renamed [[Council Bluffs, Iowa|Council Bluffs]] in 1852), on the east bank of the Missouri River opposite the mouth of the Platte River. For travelers bringing their teams to the Platte River junction, Kanesville, and other towns became major jumping-off places and supply points. In 1847 the Mormons established three ferries across the Missouri River and others established even more ferries for the spring start on the trail. In the 1850 census, there were about 8,000 mostly Mormons tabulated in the large [[Pottawattamie County, Iowa]] District 21. (The original Pottawattamie County was subsequently made into five counties and parts of several more.) By 1854, most of the Mormon towns, farms, and villages were largely taken over by non-Mormons as they abandoned them or sold them for not much and continued their migration to Utah. After 1846, the towns of Council Bluffs, Iowa, Omaha (est. 1852), and other Missouri River towns became major supply points and jumping-off places for travelers on the Mormon, California, Oregon, and other trails west.

===Kansas===
Starting initially in Independence, Missouri, or [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] in Missouri, the initial trail follows the Santa Fe Trail into Kansas south of the [[Wakarusa River]]. After crossing [[Mount Oread]] at [[Lawrence, Kansas|Lawrence]], the trail crosses the Kansas River by [[ferry]] or boats near Topeka and crosses the Wakarusa and Black Vermillion rivers by ferries.  West of Topeka, the route paralleled what is now [[U.S. Route 24 in Kansas|U.S. Route 24]] until west of St. Mary's. After the Black Vermillion River, the trail angles northwest to Nebraska paralleling the [[Little Blue River (Kansas/Nebraska)|Little Blue River]] until reaching the south side of the Platte River.  Destinations along the Oregon Trail in Kansas included [[St. Mary's Mission (Kansas)|St. Mary's Mission]], [[Pottawatomie Indian Pay Station]], [[Louisville, Kansas#Oregon Trail crossing|Vieux's Vermilion Crossing]], [[Alcove Springs]] and the [[Hollenberg Pony Express Station|Hollenberg Station]] which was built for and used concurrently in 1860 and 1861 by the Pony Express. Travel by wagon over the gently rolling Kansas countryside was usually unimpeded except where streams had cut steep banks. There a passage could be made with a lot of shovel work to cut down the banks or the travelers could find an already established crossing.{{Citation needed|date=October 2017}}

===Nebraska===
{{See also|California Hill|O'Fallons Bluff}}
[[File:Chimney Rock NE.jpg|thumb|left|[[Chimney Rock National Historic Site|Chimney Rock, Nebraska]]]]

Those emigrants on the eastern side of the Missouri River in Missouri or Iowa used ferries and steamboats (fitted out for ferry duty) to cross into towns in Nebraska. Several towns in Nebraska were used as jumping-off places with Omaha eventually becoming a favorite after about 1855. [[Fort Kearny]] (est. 1848) is about {{convert|200|mi|km}} from the Missouri River, and the trail and its many offshoots nearly all converged close to Fort Kearny as they followed the Platte River west. The army-maintained Fort was the first chance on the trail to buy emergency supplies, do repairs, get medical aid, or mail a letter. Those on the north side of the Platte could usually wade the shallow river if they needed to visit the fort.

[[File:Platterivermap.png|thumb|Map showing the Platte River watershed, including the North Platte and South Platte tributaries]]

The Platte River and the North Platte River in the future states of Nebraska and Wyoming typically had many channels and islands and were too shallow, crooked, muddy, and unpredictable for travel even by canoe. The Platte as it pursued its braided paths to the Missouri River was "too thin to plow and too thick to drink". While unusable for transportation, the Platte River and North Platte River valleys provided an easily passable wagon corridor going almost due west with access to water, grass, buffalo, and [[cow dung|buffalo chip]]s for fuel.<ref>Mattes, Merrill J. ''The Great Platte River Road''. Bison Books, 1987. {{ISBN|978-0-8032-8153-0}}</ref> The trails gradually got rougher as it progressed up the North Platte. There were trails on both sides of the muddy rivers. The Platte was about {{convert|1|mi|km}} wide and {{convert|2|to|60|in|cm}} deep. The water was silty and bad tasting but it could be used if no other water was available. Letting it sit in a bucket for an hour or so or stirring in a 1/4 cup of cornmeal allowed most of the silt to settle out.

In the spring in Nebraska and Wyoming travelers often encountered fierce wind, rain, and lightning storms. Until about 1870 travelers encountered hundreds of thousands of [[bison]] migrating through Nebraska on both sides of the Platte River, and most travelers killed several for fresh meat and to build up their supplies of dried [[Jerky (food)|jerky]] for the rest of the journey. The prairie grass in many places was several feet high with only the hat of a traveler on horseback showing as they passed through the prairie grass. In many years the Native Americans fired much of the dry grass on the prairie every fall so the only trees or bushes available for firewood were on islands in the Platte River. Travelers gathered and ignited dried cow dung to cook their meals. These burned fast in a breeze, and it could take two or more bushels of chips to get one meal prepared. Those traveling south of the Platte crossed the South Platte fork at one of about three ferries (in dry years it could be forded without a ferry) before continuing up the North Platte River Valley into present-day Wyoming heading to Fort Laramie. Before 1852 those on the north side of the Platte crossed the North Platte to the south side at Fort Laramie. After 1852 they used Child's Cutoff to stay on the north side to about the present-day town of [[Casper, Wyoming|Casper]], Wyoming, where they crossed over to the south side.<ref>{{Cite web |url = http://www.globalclassroom.org/nebraska.html |title = The Oregon Trail in Western Nebraska |website = www.globalclassroom.org |access-date = October 13, 2017 }}</ref>

Notable landmarks in Nebraska include [[Courthouse and Jail Rocks]], [[Chimney Rock National Historic Site|Chimney Rock]], [[Scotts Bluff National Monument|Scotts Bluff]], and [[Ash Hollow State Historical Park|Ash Hollow]] with its steep descent down [[Windlass Hill]] over the South Platte.<ref>{{Cite web |url = http://gnelson.incolor.com/neocta.html |title = NE – OCTA Home Page |last = Nelson |first = Greg |website = gnelson.incolor.com |access-date = October 13, 2017 }}</ref>

Today much of the Oregon Trail follows roughly along Interstate 80 from Wyoming to [[Grand Island, Nebraska|Grand Island]], Nebraska. From there [[U.S. Highway 30]] which follows the Platte River is a better approximate path for those traveling the north side of the Platte.<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/oreg/planyourvisit/upload/NE_ATRIG_Web.pdf Oregon Trail Nebraska eastern Wyoming] NPS road guide, accessed February 8, 2010</ref>

====Cholera on the Platte River====
Because of the Platte's brackish water, the preferred camping spots were along one of the many freshwater streams draining into the Platte or the occasional freshwater spring found along the way. These preferred camping spots became sources of cholera in the epidemic years (1849–1855) as many thousands of people used the same camping spots with essentially no sewage facilities or adequate sewage treatment. One of the side effects of cholera is acute diarrhea, which helps contaminate even more water unless it is isolated and/or treated. The cause of cholera (ingesting the ''[[Vibrio cholerae]]'' bacterium from contaminated water) and the best treatment for cholera infections were unknown in this era. Thousands of travelers on the combined California, Oregon, and Mormon trails succumbed to cholera between 1849 and 1855. Most were buried in unmarked graves in Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming. Although also considered part of the [[Mormon Trail]], the grave of [[Rebecca Winters (pioneer)|Rebecca Winters]] is one of the few marked ones left. There are many cases cited involving people who were alive and healthy in the morning and dead by nightfall.

Most outbreaks did not progress further west than Fort Laramie. It is believed that the swifter flowing rivers in Wyoming helped prevent the germs from spreading.<ref>"Treading the Elephant's Tail: Medical Problems on the Overland Trails". ''Overland Journal'', Volume 6, Number 1, 1988; Peter D. Olch; pp. 25–31; {{ISBN|978-0-674-00881-6}}</ref>

===Colorado===
A branch of the Oregon trail crossed the very northeast corner of [[Colorado]] if they followed the South Platte River to one of its last crossings. This branch of the trail passed through present-day [[Julesburg, Colorado|Julesburg]] before entering Wyoming. Later settlers followed the Platte and South Platte Rivers into their settlements there (much of which became the state of Colorado).

===Wyoming===
{{Main|Emigrant Trail in Wyoming}}

After crossing the South Platte River the Oregon Trail follows the North Platte River out of Nebraska into Wyoming. [[Fort Laramie National Historic Site|Fort Laramie]], at the confluence of the Laramie and North Platte rivers, was a major stopping point. Fort Laramie was a former fur trading outpost originally named Fort John that was purchased in 1848 by the U.S. Army to protect travelers on the trails.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.nps.gov/archive/fola/chrono.htm |title = Chronological List of Fort Laramie History |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081121161424/http://www.nps.gov/archive/fola/chrono.htm |archive-date = November 21, 2008}}</ref> It was the last army outpost till travelers reached the coast.

[[File:IndependenceRock2.jpg|thumb|Independence Rock]]

After crossing the South Platte the trail continues up the North Platte River, crossing many small swift-flowing creeks. As the North Platte veers to the south, the trail crosses the North Platte to the Sweetwater River Valley, which heads almost due west. [[Independence Rock (Wyoming)|Independence Rock]] is on the Sweetwater River. The Sweetwater would have to be crossed up to nine times before the trail crosses over the [[Continental Divide]] at South Pass, Wyoming. From South Pass the trail continues southwest crossing [[Big Sandy River (Wyoming)|Big Sandy Creek]]&mdash; about {{convert|10|ft|m}} wide and {{convert|1|foot}} deep&mdash; before hitting the Green River. Three to five ferries were in use on the Green during peak travel periods. The deep, wide, swift, and treacherous Green River which eventually empties into the Colorado River, was usually at high water in July and August, and it was a dangerous crossing. After crossing the Green, the main trail continued approximately southwest until the [[Blacks Fork]] of the Green River and [[Fort Bridger]]. From Fort Bridger the Mormon Trail continued southwest following the upgraded [[Hastings Cutoff]] through the [[Wasatch Mountains]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tea |first=Roy D. |title=The Hastings Cutoff Introduction |url=http://scienceviews.com/historical/hastingsintro.html |access-date=October 13, 2017 |website=scienceviews.com}}</ref> From Fort Bridger, the main trail, comprising several variants, veered northwest over the Bear River Divide and descended to the Bear River Valley. The trail turned north following the [[Bear River (Great Salt Lake)|Bear River]] past the terminus of the [[California Trail#South Pass to Humboldt River|Sublette-Greenwood Cutoff]] at Smiths Fork and on to the Thomas Fork Valley at the present Wyoming–Idaho border.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/cokeville.html |title = Lincoln County Photos II-Wyoming Tales and Trails |publisher = Wyomingtalesandtrails.com |date = June 30, 1952 |access-date = March 19, 2011 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110527045350/http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/cokeville.html |archive-date = May 27, 2011}}</ref>

Over time, two major heavily used cutoffs were established in Wyoming. The Sublette-Greenwood Cutoff was established in 1844 and cut about {{convert|70|mi|km}} off the main route. It leaves the main trail about {{convert|10|mi|km}} west of South Pass and heads almost due west crossing Big Sandy Creek and then about {{convert|45|mi|km}} of waterless, very dusty desert before reaching the Green River near the present town of [[La Barge, Wyoming|La Barge]]. Ferries here transferred them across the Green River. From there the Sublette–Greenwood Cutoff trail had to cross a mountain range to connect with the main trail near [[Cokeville, Wyoming|Cokeville]] in the Bear River Valley.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/trailsdemo/sublettegreenwood.htm |title = Sublette&ndash; Greenwood Cutoff Map |publisher = Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office |access-date = May 20, 2012 |archive-date = April 14, 2012 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120414234649/http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/trailsdemo/sublettegreenwood.htm |url-status = dead }}</ref>

[[File:Alfred Jacob Miller - Prairie Scene - Mirage - Walters 371940149.jpg|thumb|''Prairie Scene: Mirage'', by Alfred Jacob Miller]]

The [[California Trail#The Lander Road|Lander Road]], formally the Fort Kearney, South Pass, and Honey Lake Wagon Road, was established and built by U.S. government contractors in 1858–59.<ref>{{cite book |url = https://archive.org/details/additionalestima00unitrich |title = Additional estimate for Fort Kearney, South Pass, and Honey Lake wagon road: letter from the acting Secretary of the Interior, transmitting a communication from Colonel Lander regarding the Fort Kearney, South Pass and Honey Lake wagon road |publisher = United States. Dept. of the Interior |access-date = March 19, 2011 |year = 1861 }}</ref> It was about {{convert|80|mi|km}} shorter than the main trail through Fort Bridger with good grass, water, firewood, and fishing but it was a much steeper and rougher route, crossing three mountain ranges. In 1859, 13,000<ref>{{cite web |url = http://history.idaho.gov/Reference%20Series/0631.pdf |title = Federal Road Construction |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110204020129/http://www.history.idaho.gov/Reference%20Series/0631.pdf |archive-date = February 4, 2011 |url-status = dead |access-date = March 19, 2011}}</ref> of the 19,000<ref name="Unruh: page 119–120">{{harvp|Unruh|1993|pp= 119–120|ps=.}}</ref> Emigrants traveling to California and Oregon used the Lander Road. The traffic in later years is undocumented.

The Lander Road departs the main trail at Burnt Ranch near South Pass, crosses the Continental Divide north of South Pass, and reaches the Green River near the present town of Big Piney, Wyoming. From there the trail followed Big Piney Creek west before passing over the {{convert|8800|ft|m}} Thompson Pass in the [[Wyoming Range]]. It then crosses over the Smith Fork of the Bear River before ascending and crossing another {{convert|8200|ft|m|adj=on}} pass on the [[Salt River Range]] of mountains and then descending into [[Star Valley (Wyoming)|Star Valley]]. It exited the mountains near the present Smith Fork road about {{convert|6|mi|km}} south of the town of [[Smoot, Wyoming|Smoot]]. The road continued almost due north along the present-day Wyoming; Idaho western border through Star Valley. To avoid crossing the [[Salt River (Wyoming)|Salt River]] (which drains into the Snake River) which runs down Star Valley the Lander Road crossed the river when it was small and stayed west of the Salt River. After traveling down the Salt River Valley (Star Valley) about {{convert|20|mi|km}} north the road turned almost due west near the present town of [[Auburn, Wyoming|Auburn]], and entered into the present state of Idaho along Stump Creek. In Idaho, it followed the Stump Creek valley northwest until it crossed the [[Caribou Range]] and proceeded past the south end of Grays Lake. The trail then proceeded almost due west to meet the main trail at Fort Hall; alternatively, a branch trail headed almost due south to meet the main trail near the present town of Soda Springs.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/trailsdemo/landerroad.htm |title = Lander Road Cutoff Map |publisher = Wyoshpo.state.wy.us |access-date = May 20, 2012 |archive-date = May 17, 2011 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110517120143/http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/trailsdemo/landerroad.htm |url-status = dead }}</ref><ref>"Emigrant Trails of Southern Idaho"; Bureau of Land Management & Idaho State Historical Society; 1993; pp 117–125 {{ASIN|B000KE2KTU}}</ref>

Numerous landmarks are along the trail in Wyoming including Independence Rock, [[Ayres Natural Bridge]], and [[Register Cliff]].

===Utah===
In 1847, [[Brigham Young]] and the Mormon pioneers departed from the Oregon Trail at Fort Bridger in Wyoming and followed (and much improved) the rough trail originally recommended by [[Lansford Hastings]] to the Donner Party in 1846 through the Wasatch Mountains into Utah.<ref>{{Cite web |url = http://www.americanwest.com/trails/pages/mormtrl.htm |title = An Emigrant Train from the top of Big Mountain entering the valley of the Great Salt Lake |website = Utah Division of Parks and Recreation |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060211220440/http://www.americanwest.com/trails/pages/mormtrl.htm |archive-date = February 11, 2006 }}</ref> After getting into Utah, they immediately started setting up irrigated farms and cities—including Salt Lake City. In 1848, the Salt Lake Cutoff was established by Sam Hensley,<ref name="Hensley">{{cite news |url = http://historytogo.utah.gov/salt_lake_tribune/in_another_time/060594.html |title = It's Sam Hensley-Not Hansel-Who Discovered Cutoff |last = Schindler |first = Hal |date = June 5, 1994 |newspaper = The Salt Lake Tribune |pages = D1 |access-date = September 17, 2009 |archive-date = September 10, 2009 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090910124058/http://www.historytogo.utah.gov/salt_lake_tribune/in_another_time/060594.html |url-status = dead }}</ref> and returning members of the Mormon Battalion providing a path north of the [[Great Salt Lake]] from Salt Lake City back to the California and Oregon trails. This cutoff rejoined the Oregon and California Trails near the City of Rocks near the Utah; Idaho border and could be used by both California and Oregon-bound travelers. Located about halfway on both the California and Oregon trails many thousands of later travelers used Salt Lake City and other Utah cities as an intermediate stop for selling or trading excess goods or tired livestock for fresh livestock, repairs, supplies, or fresh vegetables. The Mormons looked on these travelers as a welcome bonanza as setting up new communities from scratch required nearly everything the travelers could afford to part with. The overall distance to California or Oregon was very close to the same whether one "detoured" to Salt Lake City or not. For their use and to encourage California and Oregon-bound travelers the Mormons improved the Mormon Trail from Fort Bridger and the Salt Lake Cutoff trail. To raise much-needed money and facilitate travel on the Salt Lake Cutoff they set up several ferries across the [[Weber River|Weber]], Bear, and [[Malad River (Gooding County, Idaho)|Malad Rivers]], which were used mostly by travelers bound for Oregon or California.

===Idaho===
{{See also|Oregon Trail (Ada County, Idaho segment)}}

The main Oregon and California Trail went north from Fort Bridger to the Little Muddy Creek where it passed over the Bear River Mountains to the Bear River Valley, which it followed northwest into the Thomas Fork area, where the trail crossed over the present day Wyoming line into Idaho. In the Eastern Sheep Creek Hills in the Thomas Fork Valley, the emigrants encountered [[Big Hill (Idaho)|Big Hill]], a detour caused by a then-impassable cut the Bear River made through the mountains, with a tough ascent often requiring doubling up of teams and a steep and dangerous descent.<ref>{{Cite web|title=idahohistory.net|url=http://www.idahohistory.net/OTbighill.html|access-date=2021-10-08|website=www.idahohistory.net}}</ref> In 1852, Eliza Ann McAuley found the McAuley Cutoff, which bypassed much of the difficult climb and descent of Big Hill. About {{convert|5|mi|km}} on they passed present-day [[Montpelier, Idaho|Montpelier]], Idaho, which is now the site of the National Oregon-California Trail Center.<ref>[http://www.oregontrailcenter.org/ The National Oregon-California Trail Center] Retrieved February 25, 2009</ref> The trail follows the Bear River northwest to present-day Soda Springs, which attracted pioneers with hot carbonated water for laundry and chugging springs for fresh water.<ref>Soda Springs quotes Idaho State Historical Society [http://www.idahohistory.net/Reference%20Series/0182.pdf] Retrieved February 25, 2009</ref> Just west of Soda Springs the Bear River turns southwest as it heads for the Great Salt Lake, and the main trail turns northwest to follow the [[Portneuf River (Idaho)|Portneuf River]] valley to Fort Hall, Idaho. Fort Hall was a fur trading post located on the Snake River, established in 1832 by Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth and company and later sold in 1837 to the Hudson's Bay Company. At Fort Hall, travelers were given available aid and supplies as needed. Mosquitoes were constant pests, and travelers often mentioned that their animals were covered with blood from the bites. The route from Fort Bridger to Fort Hall is about {{convert|210|mi|km}}, taking nine to twelve days.

[[File:Alfred Jacob Miller - Storm - Waiting for the Caravan - Walters 371940147.jpg|thumb|''Storm: Waiting for the Caravan'', by Alfred Jacob Miller]]

At Soda Springs was one branch of [[Emigrant Trail in Wyoming#Lander Road|Lander Road]] (established and built with government contractors in 1858), which had gone west from near South Pass, over the Salt River Mountains and down Star Valley before turning west near present-day Auburn, Wyoming, and entering Idaho. From there it proceeded northwest into Idaho up Stump Creek canyon for about {{convert|10|mi|km}}. One branch turned almost 90 degrees and proceeded southwest to Soda Springs. Another branch headed almost due west past Gray's Lake to rejoin the main trail about {{convert|10|mi|km}} west of Fort Hall.

On the main trail about {{convert|5|mi|km}} west of Soda Springs Hudspeth's Cutoff (established in 1849 and used mostly by California trail users) took off from the main trail heading west, bypassing Fort Hall. It rejoined the California Trail at Cassia Creek near the City of Rocks.<ref>Hudspeth cutoff map (OCTA-Idaho) [http://www.idahoocta.org/Idaho_Trail_Sites.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517150625/http://www.idahoocta.org/Idaho_Trail_Sites.html|date=May 17, 2008}} Accessed February 5, 2009</ref> Hudspeth's Cutoff had five mountain ranges to cross and took about the same amount of time as the main route to Fort Hall, but many took it thinking it was shorter. Its main advantage was that it helped spread out the traffic during peak periods, increasing grass availability.<ref>For an Oregon-California trail map up to the junction in Idaho NPS [http://www.nps.gov/PWR/customcf/apps/maps/showmap.cfm?alphacode=oreg&parkname=Oregon%20National%20Historic%20Trail Oregon National Historic Trail Map]. Retrieved January 28, 2009.</ref>

West of Fort Hall, the main trail traveled about {{convert|40|mi|km}} on the south side of the Snake River southwest past American Falls, [[Massacre Rocks]], Register Rock, and Coldwater Hill near present-day [[Pocatello, Idaho|Pocatello]], Idaho. Near the junction of the [[Raft River]] and Snake River, the California Trail diverged from the Oregon Trail. Travellers left the Snake River and followed the Raft River about {{convert|65|mi|km}} southwest past present-day [[Almo, Idaho|Almo]]. This trail then passed through the City of Rocks and over Granite Pass where it went southwest along Goose Creek, Little Goose Creek, and Rock Spring Creek. It went about {{convert|95|mi|km}} through [[Thousand Springs Scenic Byway|Thousand Springs Valley]], West Brush Creek, and Willow Creek, before arriving at the Humboldt River in northeastern Nevada near present-day [[Wells, Nevada|Wells]].<ref>[http://www.elkorose.com/osino/catrailsmap_smaller.jpg Northern Nevada and Utah, Southern Idaho Tail Map] Accessed February 9, 2009</ref> The California Trail proceeded west down the Humboldt before reaching and crossing the Sierra Nevada.

[[File:Goodales Cutoff of Oregon Trail at Lava Lake in 2013.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Goodale's Cutoff of the Oregon Trail at Lava Lake, west of Arco, Idaho and east of Carey, Idaho along US 26, 20, 93.   Picture of current two tracks along a section of the cutoff of the Oregon Trail.]]

The Snake River's depth and fast water meant that there were few places to safely cross. Two of these fords were near Fort Hall, where travelers on the Oregon Trail North Side Alternate (established about 1852) and Goodale's Cutoff (established 1862) crossed the Snake to travel on the north side. Nathaniel Wyeth wrote in his diary that his party found a ford across the Snake River {{convert|4|mi|km}} southwest of where he founded Fort Hall. Another possible crossing was a few miles upstream of [[Salmon Falls (Snake River)|Salmon Falls]] where some intrepid travelers floated their wagons and swam their stock across to join the north side trail. Some lost their wagons and teams over the falls.<ref>[http://history.idaho.gov/Reference%20Series/0752.pdf] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721042929/http://history.idaho.gov/Reference%20Series/0752.pdf|date=July 21, 2011}}</ref> The trails on the north side joined the trail from [[Three Island Crossing]] about {{convert|17|mi|km}} west of Glenns Ferry on the north side of the Snake River.<ref>[http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/id/publications.Par.50091.File.dat/OCTAbooklet.pdf Oregon Trail North Side Alternate] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325011951/http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/id/publications.Par.50091.File.dat/OCTAbooklet.pdf|date=March 25, 2009}}, Retrieved February 25, 2009</ref><ref>[http://www.nps.gov/archive/ciro/hrs/images/fig7.jpg map of North Side Alternate] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325012003/http://www.nps.gov/archive/ciro/hrs/images/fig7.jpg |date=March 25, 2009 }}, Retrieved February 25, 2009</ref>

[[Goodale's Cutoff]], established in 1862 on the north side of the Snake River, formed a spur of the Oregon Trail. This cutoff had been used as a pack trail by Native Americans and fur traders, and emigrant wagons traversed parts of the eastern section as early as 1852. After crossing the Snake River the {{convert|230|mi|km|adj=on}} cutoff headed north from Fort Hall toward Big Southern Butte following the [[Big Lost River|Lost River]] part of the way. It passed near the present-day town of [[Arco, Idaho]], and wound through the northern part of what is now [[Craters of the Moon National Monument]]. From there it went southwest to [[Camas Prairie]] and ended at [[Fort Boise#Old Fort Boise (1834-54)|Old Fort Boise]] on the [[Boise River]]. This journey typically took two to three weeks and was noted for its rough lava terrain and extremely dry climate, which tended to dry the ward on the wagons, causing the iron rims to fall off the wheels. The loss of wheels caused many wagons to be abandoned along the route. It rejoined the main trail east of Boise. Goodale's Cutoff is visible at many points along U.S. Routes [[U.S. Route 20|20]], [[U.S. Route 26|26]], and [[U.S. Route 93|93]] between Craters of the Moon National Monument and [[Carey, Idaho|Carey]].<ref>Goodale's Cutoff NPS [http://www.nps.gov/archive/crmo/goodale.htm] Retrieved February 22, 2009</ref>

[[File:Shoshone Falls, Snake River, Idaho ppmsca.10072u.jpg|thumb|View across top of [[Shoshone Falls]], [[Snake River]], Idaho ([[Timothy H. O'Sullivan]], 1874)]]

From the present site of Pocatello, the trail proceeded west on the south side of the Snake River for about {{convert|180|mi|km}}. This route passed [[Cauldron Linn (Idaho)|Cauldron Linn]] rapids, [[Shoshone Falls]], two falls near the present city of [[Twin Falls, Idaho|Twin Falls]], and Upper Salmon Falls on the Snake River. At Salmon Falls there were often a hundred or more Native Americans fishing who would trade for their salmon.

The trail continued west to Three Island Crossing (near present-day [[Glenns Ferry, Idaho|Glenns Ferry]]<ref>[http://www.nativeamerican.co.uk/oregonroute15.html Three Island Crossing photos] Retrieved February 22, 2009,</ref><ref>Three Island Crossing quotes {{cite web |url = http://www.wvi.com/users/TIC/tic.htm |title = Three Island Crossing |access-date = February 23, 2009 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090206235002/http://www.wvi.com/users/TIC/tic.htm |archive-date = February 6, 2009}} Retrieved February 22, 2009</ref>). Here most emigrants used the divisions of the river caused by three islands to cross the difficult and swift Snake River by ferry, or by driving or sometimes floating their wagons and swimming their teams across. Hidden holes in the river bottom could overturn the wagon or entangle the team, and several drownings occurred nearly every year before ferries were established.<ref>[http://www.stateparks.com/three_island_crossing.html Three Mile Island Crossing Park], Retrieved February 22, 2009</ref>

[[File:BoiseOregonTrailMonument.jpg|thumb|upright|left|One of [[Boise, Idaho|Boise's]] 21 Oregon Trail monuments.]]

The north side of the Snake had better water and grass than the south. The trail from Three Island Crossing to Old Fort Boise was about {{convert|130|mi|km}} long. The next and final crossing of the Snake River was near Old Fort Boise, and could be done on bullboats while swimming the stock across. Others would chain a large string of wagons and teams together, hoping that the front teams, usually oxen, would get out of the water first and with good footing help pull the whole string of wagons and teams across. Often, Native American boys who could swim were hired to drive and ride the stock across the river. In present-day Idaho, [[Interstate 84 (west)|Interstate 84]] roughly follows the Oregon Trail from the Idaho-Oregon State border at the Snake River. Approximately {{convert|7|mi|spell=in}} east of [[Declo, Idaho|Declo]] in present-day rural [[Cassia County, Idaho|Cassia County]], Interstate 84 meets the western terminus of the western section of [[Interstate 86 (west)|Interstate 86]]. Interstate 86 heads east, then northeast to [[American Falls, Idaho|American Falls]] and [[Pocatello, Idaho|Pocatello]] following the Oregon Trail, while Interstate 84 heads southeast to the State border with [[Utah]]. [[U.S. Route 30]] roughly follows the path of the Oregon Trail from [[Pocatello]] to [[Montpelier, Idaho|Montpelier]].

Starting in about 1848, the South Alternate of Oregon Trail (also called the Snake River Cutoff) was developed as a spur off the main trail. It bypassed the Three Island Crossing and continued traveling down the south side of the Snake River. It rejoined the trail near present-day [[Ontario, Oregon]]. It hugged the southern edge of the Snake River Canyon and was a much rougher trail with poorer water and grass, requiring occasional steep descents and ascents with the animals down into the Snake River Canyon to get water. Travelers on this route avoided two dangerous crossings of the Snake River.<ref>[http://www.fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/trails/natltrails.pdf National Trail Map] Retrieved February 22, 2009,</ref> In present-day Idaho, the state highway ID-78 roughly follows the path of the South Alternate route of the Oregon Trail.

In 1869, the Central Pacific established [[Kelton, Utah]] as a railhead and the terminus of the western mail was moved from Salt Lake City. The Kelton Road became important as a communication and transportation road to the Boise Basin.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.idahohistory.net/Reference%20Series/0074.pdf |title = IdahoHistory.net |publisher = IdahoHistory.net |date = July 7, 2010 |access-date = March 19, 2011 }}</ref>

[[Boise, Idaho|Boise]] has 21 monuments in the shape of [[obelisk]]s along its portion of the Oregon Trail.<ref name="Boise Oregon Trail Monuments">{{cite web |title = Oregon Trail Monuments |publisher = Boise City Department of Arts & History |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130515205820/http://www.boiseartsandhistory.org/history/tours-maps/oregon-trail-monuments/ |url-status = dead |url = http://www.boiseartsandhistory.org/history/tours-maps/oregon-trail-monuments/ |archive-date = May 15, 2013 |access-date = March 2, 2014 }}</ref>

===Oregon===
[[File:OregonTrailBakerCityOR.jpg|thumb|right|Present-day footpaths following ruts of the Oregon Trail near the [[National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center]] east of [[Baker City, Oregon]]]]

Once across the Snake River ford near Old Fort Boise the weary travelers traveled across what would become the state of Oregon. The trail then went to the [[Malheur River]] and then past [[Farewell Bend State Recreation Area|Farewell Bend]] on the Snake River, up the [[Burnt River (Oregon)|Burnt River]] canyon and northwest to the Grande Ronde Valley near present-day [[La Grande, Oregon|La Grande]] before coming to the Blue Mountains. In 1843 settlers cut a wagon road over these mountains making them passable for the first time to wagons. The trail went to the [[Whitman Mission]] near Fort Nez Perces in Washington until 1847 when the [[Whitman massacre|Whitmans were killed by Native Americans]]. At Fort Nez Perce some built rafts or hired boats and started down the Columbia; others continued west in their wagons until they reached The Dalles. After 1847 the trail bypassed the closed mission and headed almost due west to present-day [[Pendleton, Oregon|Pendleton]], Oregon, crossing the [[Umatilla River]], John Day River, and Deschutes River before arriving at The Dalles. Interstate 84 in Oregon roughly follows the original Oregon Trail from Idaho to The Dalles.

Arriving at the Columbia at The Dalles and stopped by the [[Cascade Mountains]] and Mount Hood, some gave up their wagons or disassembled them and put them on boats or rafts for a trip down the Columbia River. Once they transited the Cascade's [[Columbia River Gorge]] with its multiple rapids and treacherous winds they would have to make the {{convert|1.6|mi|km|adj=on}} portage around the [[Cascade Rapids]] before coming out near the [[Willamette River]] where Oregon City was located. The pioneer's livestock could be driven around Mount Hood on the narrow, crooked, and rough Lolo Pass.

Several Oregon Trail branches and route variations led to the Willamette Valley. The most popular was the [[Barlow Road]], which was carved through the forest around Mount Hood from The Dalles in 1846 as a toll road at $5 per wagon and 10 cents per head of livestock. It was rough and steep with poor grass but still cheaper and safer than floating goods, wagons, and family down the dangerous Columbia River.

In Central Oregon, there was the [[Santiam Wagon Road]] (established 1861), which roughly parallels Oregon Highway 20 to the Willamette Valley. The [[Applegate Trail]] (established 1846), cutting off the California Trail from the Humboldt River in Nevada, crossed part of California before cutting north to the south end of the Willamette Valley. [[U.S. Route 99]] and [[Interstate 5]] through Oregon roughly follow the original Applegate Trail.

==Travel equipment==

===Wagons and pack animals===
Three types of [[Working animal|draft]] and [[pack animal]]s were used by Oregon Trail pioneers: [[ox]]en, [[mule]]s, and [[horse]]s.<ref name="Dary">David Dary, ''The Oregon Trail: An American Saga'' (Knopt, 2004), pp. 79–80.</ref>

By 1842, many emigrants favored oxen&mdash; castrated bulls (males) of the genus ''[[Bos]]'' (cattle), generally over four years old; as the best animal to pull wagons, because they were docile, generally healthy, and able to continue moving in difficult conditions such as mud and snow.<ref name="Dary"/> Oxen could also survive on [[Tallgrass prairie|prairie grasses]] and [[Artemisia tridentata|sage]], unlike horses, who had to be fed. Moreover, oxen were less expensive to purchase and maintain than horses.<ref name="Dary"/> Oxen also could stand idle for long periods without suffering damage to the feet and legs.<ref name="Dary"/> Oxen were trained by leading, the use of a [[whip]] or [[goad]], and the use of oral commands (such as "Gee" (right), "Haw" (left), and "Whoa" (stop)).<ref name="Dary"/> Two oxen were typically yoked together at the neck or head; the left ox was referred to as the "near" or "nigh" ox, and the right ox as the "off" ox.<ref name="Dary"/> While no [[rein]]s, [[Bit (horse)|bits]], or [[halter]]s were needed, the trainer had to be forceful. Oxen typically traveled at a steady pace up to two miles an hour.<ref name="Dary"/>

One drawback of oxen was the difficulty of shoeing. Oxen hooves are [[Cloven hoof|cloven]] (split), and they had to be shod with two curved pieces of metal, one on each side of the hoof. While horses and mules allowed themselves to be shod relatively easily, the process was more difficult with oxen, who would lie down and tuck their feet under themselves.<ref name="Dary"/>  As a result, several men had to lift and hold an ox while he was being shod.<ref name="Dary"/>

Mules were used by some emigrants.<ref name="Dary"/> The competing merits of oxen and mules were hotly debated among emigrants.<ref name="Stamm">Mike Stamm, ''The Mule Alternative: The Saddle Mule in the American West'' (1992), pp. 61–62.</ref> Some found oxen to be more durable.<ref name="Dary"/> Others, by contrast, believed that mules were more durable, and mules may have had a lower attrition rate on the trail than oxen.<ref name="Stamm"/> Like oxen, mules could survive on prairie grasses.<ref name="Dary"/> Mules were, however, notoriously ill-tempered.<ref name="Dary"/> Mules also cost about three times as much as oxen, a deciding factor for many emigrants.<ref name="Stamm"/><ref>George R. Stewart, ''The California Trail: An Epic with Many Heroes'' (1962), p. 40.</ref>

Three types of wagons were pulled:
* [[Conestoga wagon]]s, a heavy type of covered wagon 
* [[Covered wagon]] ("prairie schooners"), lighter than a Conestoga and often just a covered farm wagon.
* Studebaker (see [[Studebaker#History|§ History]])

===Food===
In 1855, the typical cost of food for four people for six months was about $150 which would cost almost $5,000 today.<ref>{{cite book |author = Dary, David |title = The Oregon Trail an American Saga |publisher = Alfred P. Knopf |location = New York |date = 2004 |page = [https://archive.org/details/oregontrailameri00dary/page/274 274] |isbn = 978-0-375-41399-5 |url = https://archive.org/details/oregontrailameri00dary/page/274 }}</ref>

Food and water were key concerns for migrants. Wagons typically carried at least one large water keg,<ref name="McLynn">{{cite book |author = McLynn, Frank |title = Wagons West: The Epic Story of America's Overland Trails |publisher = Random House |date = 2002 |pages = 103–104 }}</ref><ref name="Horsman">Reginald Horsman, ''Feast or Famine: Food and Drink in American Westward Expansion'' (University of Missouri Press, 2008), pp. 128–131.</ref> and guidebooks available from the 1840s and later gave similar advice to migrants on what food to take. T. H. Jefferson, in his ''Brief Practice Advice'' guidebook for migrants, recommended that each adult take 200 pounds of [[flour]]: "Take plenty of breadstuffs; this is the staff of life when everything else runs short."<ref name="McLynn"/><ref name="Horsman"/>

Food often took the form of [[Cracker (food)|crackers]] or [[hardtack]]; Southerners sometimes chose [[cornmeal]] or [[pinole]] rather than [[wheat]] flour.<ref name="McLynn"/>  Emigrants typically ate [[rice]] and [[bean]]s only at forts stopped at along the way, because boiling water was difficult on the trail, and fuel was not abundant.<ref name="McLynn"/> [[Lansford Hastings]] recommended that each emigrant take 200 pounds of flour, 150 pounds of "[[bacon]]" (a word which, at the time, referred broadly to all forms of [[salt pork]]), 20 pounds of [[sugar]], and 10 pounds of [[salt]].<ref name="McLynn"/><ref name="Horsman"/> [[Chipped beef]], rice, [[tea]], dried beans, [[dried fruit]], [[Sodium bicarbonate|saleratus]] (for raising [[bread]]), [[vinegar]], [[Pickled cucumber|pickles]], [[Mustard (condiment)|mustard]], and [[tallow]] might also be taken.<ref name="McLynn"/><ref name="Horsman"/>  Joseph Ware's 1849 guide recommends that travelers take for each individual a barrel of flour or 180 pounds of ship's biscuit (i.e., hardtack), 150–180 pounds of bacon, 60 pounds of beans or [[pea]]s, 25 pounds of rice, 25 pounds of [[coffee]], 40 pounds of sugar, a keg of [[lard]], 30 or 40 pounds of dried fruit ([[peach]]es or [[apple]]s), a keg of clear, [[Rendering (animal products)|rendered]] beef [[suet]] (to substitute for butter), as well as some vinegar, salt, and [[Black pepper|pepper]].<ref name="Horsman"/> Many emigrant families also carried a small amount of tea and [[maple sugar]].<ref name="McLynn"/>

[[Randolph B. Marcy]], an army officer who wrote an 1859 guide, advised taking less bacon than the earlier guides had recommended. He advised emigrants to drive cattle instead as a source of fresh beef.<ref name="McLynn"/> Marcy also instructed emigrants to store sides of bacon in canvas bags or in boxes surrounded by [[bran]] to protect against extreme heat, which could make bacon [[Rancidification|go rancid]].<ref name="Horsman"/> Marcy instructed emigrants to put salt pork on the bottom of wagons to avoid exposure to extreme heat.<ref name="Horsman"/> Marcy also recommended the use of [[pemmican]], as well as the storage of sugar in [[Natural rubber|India rubber]] or [[gutta-percha]] sacks, to prevent it from becoming wet.<ref name="Horsman"/>

[[Canning]] technology had just begun to be developed, and it gained in popularity through the period of westward expansion. Initially, only upper-class migrants typically used canned goods.<ref name="McLynn"/> There are references in sources to canned [[cheese]], fruit, meat, [[oyster]]s, and [[sardine]]s.<ref name="McLynn"/> By the time Marcy wrote his 1859 guide, canned foods were increasingly available but remained expensive. Canning also added weight to a wagon. Rather than canned [[vegetable]]s, Marcy suggested that travelers take dried vegetables, which had been used in the [[Crimean War]] and by the U.S. Army.<ref name="Horsman"/>

Some pioneers took [[Egg as food|eggs]] and [[butter]] packed in barrels of flour, and some took [[Dairy cattle|dairy cows]] along the trail.<ref name="McLynn"/> [[Hunting]] provided another source of food along the trail; pioneers hunted [[American bison]] as well as [[pronghorn antelope]], [[Odocoileus|deer]], [[bighorn sheep]], and wildfowl.<ref name="McLynn"/> From rivers and lakes, emigrants also fished for [[catfish]] and [[trout]].<ref name="McLynn"/> When emigrants faced starvation, they would sometimes slaughter their animals ([[horse]]s, [[mule]]s, and [[ox]]en).<ref name="McLynn"/>  In desperate times, migrants would search for less-popular sources of food, including [[coyote]], [[fox]], [[jackrabbit]], [[marmot]], [[prairie dog]], and [[rattlesnake]] (nicknamed "bush fish" in the later period).<ref name="McLynn"/>

At the time, [[scurvy]] was well-recognized, but there was a lack of clear understanding of how to prevent the disease.<ref name="Horsman"/> Nevertheless, pioneers' consumption of the wild [[berry|berries]] (including [[chokeberry]], [[gooseberry]], and [[serviceberry]]) and [[Ribes|currants]] that grew along the trail (particularly along the [[Platte River]]) helped make scurvy infrequent.<ref name="McLynn"/><ref name="Horsman"/> Marcy's guide correctly suggested that the consumption of wild [[grape]]s, [[Leaf vegetable|greens]], and [[onion]]s could help prevent the disease and that if vegetables were not available, [[citric acid]] could be drunk with sugar and water.<ref name="Horsman"/>

Mostly middle-class emigrant families prided themselves on preparing a good table. Although operating [[Dutch oven]]s and kneading dough was difficult on the trail, many baked good bread and even [[pie]]s.<ref name="McLynn"/>

For fuel to heat food, travelers would collect [[cedar wood]], [[Populus sect. Aigeiros|cottonwood]], or [[willow]] wood, when available, and sometimes dry prairie grass.<ref name="McLynn"/> More frequently, however, travelers relied on "[[cow dung|buffalo chips]]"—dried bison dung—to fuel fires.<ref name="McLynn"/> Buffalo chips resembled rotten wood and would make clear and hot fires.<ref name="McLynn"/> Chips burned quickly, however, and it took up to three [[bushel]]s of chips to heat a single meal.<ref name="McLynn"/>  Collecting buffalo chips was a common task for children and was one chore that even very young children could carry out.<ref name="McLynn"/> As a result, "memoirs written by those who were very young when they made the journey west invariably refer to this aspect of life on the trail."<ref name="McLynn"/>

===Clothing, equipment, and supplies===
[[Tobacco]] was popular, both for personal use and for trading with natives and other pioneers. Each person brought at least two changes of clothes and multiple pairs of boots (two to three pairs often worn out on the trip). About 25 pounds of soap was recommended for a party of four, for bathing and washing clothes. A washboard and tub were usually brought for washing clothes. Wash days typically occur once or twice a month, or less, depending on the availability of good grass, water, and fuel.

Most wagons carried tents for sleeping, though in good weather most would sleep outside. A thin fold-up mattress, blankets, pillows, canvas, or rubber gutta-percha ground covers were used for sleeping. Sometimes an unfolded feather bed mattress was brought for the wagon if there were pregnant women or very young children along. Storage boxes were ideally the same height, so they could be arranged to give a flat surface inside the wagon for a sleeping platform.

The wagons had no springs, and the ride along the trail was very rough. Despite modern depictions, hardly anyone rode in the wagons; it was too dusty, too rough, and too hard on the livestock.

[[File:Bierstadt Albert Oregon Trail.jpg|thumb|''Oregon Trail'', painting by [[Albert Bierstadt]], c. 1863]]

Travelers brought books, Bibles, trail guides, and writing quills, ink, and paper for writing letters or journaling (about one in 200 kept a diary).{{sfnp|Unruh|1993|pp=4–5}}

A belt and folding knives were carried by nearly all men and boys. Awls, scissors, pins, needles, and thread for mending were required. Spare leather was used for repairing shoes, harnesses, and other equipment. Some used goggles to keep dust out of the eyes.

Saddles, bridles, hobbles, and ropes were needed if the party had a horse or riding mule, and many men did. Extra harnesses and spare wagon parts were often carried. Most carried steel shoes for horses, mules, or livestock. Tar was carried to help repair an ox's injured hoof.

Goods, supplies, and equipment were often shared by fellow travelers.{{sfnp|Unruh|1993|pp=149–155}} Items that were forgotten, broken, or worn out could be bought from a fellow traveler, post, or fort along the way. New iron shoes for horses, mules, and oxen were put on by blacksmiths found along the way. Equipment repairs and other goods could be procured from blacksmith shops established at some forts and some ferries. Emergency supplies, repairs, and livestock were often provided by residents in California, Oregon, and Utah for late travelers on the trail who were hurrying to beat the snow.

[[File:Albert Bierstadt Oregon Trail.jpg|thumb|[[Albert Bierstadt]], ''Oregon Trail'', 1869|alt=landscape painting with covered wagons, men on horses, mountains with cliffs on the right and a sunrise seen through the trees on the left]]

Non-essential items were often abandoned to lighten the load or in case of emergency. Many travelers would salvage discarded items, picking up essentials or leaving behind their lower-quality items when a better one was found abandoned along the road. Some profited by collecting discarded items, hauling them back to jumping-off places, and reselling them. In the early years, Mormons sent scavenging parties back along the trail to salvage as much iron and other supplies as possible and haul it to Salt Lake City, where supplies of all kinds were needed.{{sfnp|Unruh|1993|pp=149–150}} Others would use discarded furniture, wagons, and wheels as firewood. During the 1849 gold rush, [[Fort Laramie National Historic Site|Fort Laramie]] was known as "Camp Sacrifice" because of the large amounts of merchandise discarded nearby.{{sfnp|Unruh|1993|p=150}} Travelers had pushed along the relatively easy path to Fort Laramie with their luxury items but discarded them before the difficult mountain crossing ahead, and after discovering that many items could be purchased at the forts or located for free along the way. Some travelers carried their excess goods to Salt Lake City to be sold.

Professional tools used by blacksmiths, carpenters, and farmers were carried by nearly all. Axes, crowbars, hammers, hatchets, hoes, mallets, mattocks, picks, planes, saws, scythes, and shovels<ref>{{cite web |publisher = Oregon Trail Center |url = http://www.oregontrailcenter.org/HistoricalTrails/Supplies.htm |title = Supplies }}</ref> were used to clear or make a road through brush or trees, cut down the banks to cross a wash or steeply banked stream, build a raft or bridge, or repair the wagon. In general, as little road work as possible was done. Travel was often along the top of ridges to avoid the brush and washes common in many valleys.

==Statistics==
Overall, some 268,000 pioneers used the Oregon Trail and its three primary offshoots, the [[Bozeman Trail|Bozeman]], [[California Trail|California]], and [[Mormon Trail]]s, to reach the West Coast, 1840–1860. Another 48,000 headed to Utah. There is no estimate on how many used it to return East.<ref>{{cite book |author = Unruh |title = The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840–1860 |date = 1992 |pages = 119–120 }}</ref>

===Emigrants===
{| class=" wiki table float right" 
|+ Estimated California Oregon Mormon Trail Emigrants<ref name="Unruh: page 119–120"/>
|-
! Year
! Oregon
! California
! Utah
! Total
|-
! 1834–39
| 20
| −
| −
| 20
|-
! 1840
| 13
| −
| −
| 13
|-
! 1841
| 24
| 34
| −
| 58
|-
! 1842
| 125
| −
| −
| 125
|-
! 1843
| 875
| 38
| −
| 913
|-
! 1844
| 1,475
| 53
| −
| 1,528
|-
! 1845
| 2,500
| 260
| −
| 2,760
|-
! 1846
| 1,200
| 1,500
| −
| 2,700
|-
! 1847
| 4,000
| 450
| 2,200
| 6,650
|-
! 1848
| 1,300
| 400
| 2,400
| 4,100
|-
! Total
! 11,512
! 2,735
! 4,600
! 18,847
|-
! 1849
| 450
| 25,000
| 1,500
| 26,950
|-
! 1850
| 6,000
| 44,000
| 2,500
| 52,500
|-
! 1851
| 3,600
| 1,100
| 1,500
| 6,200
|-
! 1852
| 10,000
| 50,000
| 10,000
| 70,000
|-
! 1853
| 7,500
| 20,000
| 8,000
| 35,500
|-
! 1854
| 6,000
| 12,000
| 3,200
| 21,200
|-
! 1855
| 500
| 1,500
| 4,700
| 6,700
|-
! 1856
| 1,000
| 8,000
| 2,400
| 11,400
|-
! 1857
| 1,500
| 4,000
| 1,300
| 6,800
|-
! 1858
| 1,500
| 6,000
| 150
| 7,650
|-
! 1859
| 2,000
| 17,000
| 1,400
| 20,400
|-
! 1860
| 1,500
| 9,000
| 1,600
| 12,100
|-
! Total
! 53,000
! 200,300
! 43,000
! 296,300
|-
! 1834–60
! Oregon
! California
! Utah<ref name="lds.org">Mormon Pioneer Companies [https://web.archive.org/web/20031204041015/http://lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneercompanylist-chronological/0,15765,3968-1,00.html] Retrieved April 11, 2009</ref>
! Total<ref>Mattes, Merril J.; ''The Great Platte River Road''; p. 23; Nebraska State Historical Society; 1979: {{ISBN|978-0-686-26254-1}}</ref>
|-
! 1861
| −
| −
| 3,148
| 5,000
|-
! 1862
| −
| −
| 5,244
| 5,000
|-
! 1863
| −
| −
| 4,760
| 10,000
|-
! 1864
| −
| −
| 2,626
| 10,000
|-
! 1865
| −
| −
| 690
| 20,000
|-
! 1866
| −
| −
| 3,299
| 25,000
|-
! 1867
| −
| −
| 700
| 25,000
|-
! 1868
| −
| −
| 4,285
| 25,000
|-
! Total
! 80,000
! 250,000
! 70,000
! 400,000
|-
! 1834–67
! Oregon
! California
! Utah
! Total
|}

Some of the trail statistics for the early years were recorded by the U.S. Army at [[Fort Laramie, Wyoming]], from about 1849 to 1855. None of these original statistical records have been found—the Army either lost them or destroyed them. Only some partial written copies of the Army records and notes recorded in several diaries have survived.

Emigration to California spiked considerably with the 1849 gold rush. Following the discovery of gold, California remained the destination of choice for most emigrants on the trail up to 1860, with almost 200,000 people traveling there between 1849 and 1860.

Travel diminished after 1860, as the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] caused considerable disruptions on the trail. Many of the people on the trail in 1861–1863 were fleeing the war and its attendant drafts in both the South and the North. Trail historian Merrill J. Mattes<ref>Mattes, Merrill J.; op. cit.; p. 23</ref> has estimated the number of emigrants for 1861–1867 given in the total column of the above table. But these estimates may well be low since they only amount to an extra 125,000 people, and the 1870 census shows that over 200,000 additional people (ignoring most of the population increase in California, which had excellent sea and rail connections across Panama by then) showed up in all the states served by the Bozeman, California, Mormon, and Oregon Trails and their offshoots.

Mormon emigration records after 1860 are reasonably accurate, as newspapers and other accounts in Salt Lake City give most of the names of emigrants arriving each year from 1847 to 1868.<ref name="lds.org"/> Gold and silver strikes in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Oregon caused a considerable increase in people using the trails, often in directions different from the original trail users.

Though the numbers are significant in the context of the times, far more people chose to remain at home in the 31 states. Between 1840 and 1860, the population of the United States rose by 14&nbsp; million, yet only about 300,000 decided to make the trip. Many were discouraged by the cost, effort, and danger of the trip. Western scout Kit Carson is thought to have said, "The cowards never started and the weak died on the way", though the general saying was written{{when|reason=Isn't this statement meant to establish the primacy of the source, based on an earlier date?|date=March 2015}} by [[Joaquin Miller]], in reference to the California gold rush.<ref name="The Californian: Old Californians">{{cite journal |journal = The Californian |title = Old Californians|editor = A. Roman |page =48|author= [[Joaquin Miller]] |date = January 1881 |volume = III |publisher = The California Publishing Company |location = San Francisco |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=i0lMAAAAMAAJ |quote = The cowards did not start to the Pacific Coast in the old days; all the weak died on the way. And so it was that we had then not only a race of giants but of gods. |access-date = March 9, 2015 }}</ref> According to several sources, 3 to 10&nbsp; percent of the emigrants are estimated to have perished on the way west.<ref>Lloyd W. Coffman, 1993, ''Blazing a Wagon Trail to Oregon''</ref>

Many who went were between the ages of 12 and 24. Between 1860 and 1870, the U.S. population increased by seven million; about 350,000 of this increase was in the Western states.

===Western census data===
{| class=" wiki table float left"
|+ Census Population of western States<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1870a-03.pdf |title = U.S. Census 1790–1870 |access-date = May 20, 2012 }}</ref>
|-
! State
! 1860
! 1870
! Difference
|-
! California
| 379,994
| 560,247
| 180,253
|-
! Nevada
| 6,857
| 42,491
| 35,634
|-
! Oregon
| 52,465
| 90,923
| 38,458
|-
! Colorado<ref name="territories">Territory</ref>
| 34,277
| 39,684
| 5,407
|-
! Idaho<ref name="territories" />
| −
| 14,990
| 14,990
|-
! Montana<ref name="territories" />
| −
| 20,595
| 20,595
|-
! Utah<ref name="territories" />
| 40,273
| 86,789
| 46,516
|-
! Washington<ref name="territories" />
| 11,594
| 23,955
| 12,361
|-
! Wyoming<ref name="territories" />
| −
| 9,118
| 9,118
|-
! Totals
! 525,460
! 888,792
! 363,332
|}

These census numbers show a 363,000 population increase in the western states and territories between 1860 and 1870. Some of this increase is because of a high birth rate in the western states and territories, but most is from emigrants moving from the east to the west and new immigration from Europe. Much of the increase in California and Oregon was from emigration by ship, as there was fast and reasonably low-cost transportation via East and West Coast steamships and the Panama Railroad after 1855. The census numbers imply at least 200,000 emigrants (or more) used some variation of the California/Oregon/Mormon/Bozeman Trails to get to their new homes between 1860 and 1870.

===Costs===
The cost of traveling over the Oregon Trail and its extensions varied from nothing to a few hundred dollars per person. Women seldom went alone. The cheapest way was to hire one to help drive the wagons or herds, allowing one to make the trip for nearly nothing or even make a small profit. Those with capital could often buy livestock in the [[Midwest]] and drive the stock to California or Oregon for profit. About 60 to 80&nbsp; percent of the travelers were farmers and as such already owned a wagon, livestock team, and many of the necessary supplies. This lowered the cost of the trip to about $50 per person for food and other items. Families planned the trip for months and made much of the extra clothing and many other items needed. Individuals buying most of the needed items would end up spending between $150–200 per person.<ref>{{cite book |last = Dary |first = David |title = The Oregon Trail an American Saga |publisher = Alfred P. Knopf |location = New York |year = 2004 |pages = [https://archive.org/details/oregontrailameri00dary/page/272 272–275] |isbn = 978-0-375-41399-5 |url = https://archive.org/details/oregontrailameri00dary/page/272 }}</ref> As the trail matured, additional costs for ferries and toll roads were thought to have been about $30 per wagon.{{sfnp|Unruh|1993|p=408}}

===Deaths===
{| class=" wiki table float left"
|+ Oregon-California-Mormon Trail Deaths<ref name=unruh1993-408-410,516>{{harvp|Unruh|1993|pp= 408–410, 516|ps=.}}</ref>
|-
! Cause
! Estimated deaths
|-
| Disease
| 6,000–12,500
|-
| Battling with Native Americans
| 3,000–4,500
|-
| Freezing
| 300–500
|-
| [[Scurvy]]
| 300–500
|-
| Run overs
| 200–500
|-
| Drownings
| 200–500
|-
| Shootings
| 200–500
|-
| Miscellaneous
| 200–500
|-
|-
! Totals
! 10,400–20,000
|}

The route west was arduous and fraught with many dangers, but the number of deaths on the trail is not known with any precision; there are only widely varying estimates. Estimating is difficult because of the common practice of burying people in unmarked graves that were intentionally disguised to avoid being dug up by animals or natives. Graves were often put in the middle of a trail and then run over by the livestock to make them difficult to find. Disease was the main killer of trail travelers; [[cholera]] killed up to 3 percent of all travelers in the epidemic years from 1849 to 1855.

Native attacks increased significantly after 1860, when most of the army troops were withdrawn, and miners and ranchers began fanning out all over the country, often encroaching on Native American territory. Increased attacks along the Humboldt led to most travelers taking the [[Central Nevada Route]]. The Goodall cutoff, developed in Idaho in 1862, kept Oregon-bound travelers away from much of the native trouble nearer the [[Snake River]]. Other trails were developed that traveled further along the [[South Platte]] to avoid local Native American hot spots.

Other common causes of death included [[hypothermia]], drowning in river crossings, getting run over by wagons, and accidental gun deaths. Later, more family groups started traveling, and many more bridges and ferries were being put in, so fording a dangerous river became much less common and dangerous. Surprisingly few people were taught to swim in this era. Being run over was a major cause of death, despite the wagons' only averaging 2–3 miles per hour. The wagons could not easily be stopped, and people, particularly children, were often trying to get on and off the wagons while they were moving—not always successfully. Another hazard was a dress getting caught in the wheels and pulling the person under. Accidental shootings declined significantly after Fort Laramie, as people became more familiar with their weapons and often just left them in their wagons. Carrying around a ten-pound rifle all day soon became tedious and usually unnecessary, as the perceived threat of natives faded and hunting opportunities receded.

A significant number of travelers were suffering from [[scurvy]] by the end of their trips. Their typical flour and salted pork/bacon diet had very little [[vitamin C]] in it. The diet in the mining camps was also typically low in fresh vegetables and fruit, which indirectly led to the early deaths of many of the inhabitants. Some believe that scurvy deaths may have rivaled cholera as a killer, with most deaths occurring after the victim reached California.<ref>Steele, Volney M.D. ''Bleed, Blister, and Purge: A History of Medicine on the American Frontier''. Mountain Press Publishing Company, 2005. pp. 115, 116. {{ISBN|978-0-87842-505-1}}</ref>

Miscellaneous deaths included deaths by [[Maternal death|childbirth]], falling trees, flash floods, [[homicides]], kicks by animals, lightning strikes, snake bites, and [[stampede]]s. According to an evaluation by John Unruh,<ref name=unruh1993-408-410,516 /> a 4 percent death rate or 16,000 out of 400,000 total pioneers on all trails may have died on the trail.

Reaching the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada]] before the start of the winter storms was critical for the successful completion of a trip. The most famous failure in that regard was that of the [[Donner Party]], whose members struggled to traverse what is today called [[Donner Pass]], in November 1846. When the last survivor was rescued in April 1847, 33 men, women, and children had died at [[Donner Lake]]; with some of the 48 survivors confessing to having resorted to [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]] to survive.{{sfnp|Peters|1996|pp=102–109}}

===Disease===
Disease was the biggest killer on the Oregon Trail. [[Cholera]] was responsible for taking many lives.<ref>{{cite book |last = Rosenburg |first = Charles |title = The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849 and 1866 |location = Chicago |year = 1987 |isbn = 978-0226726779 }}</ref> As a [[fecal-oral]] disease, it commonly resulted from consuming food or water contaminated by the bacterium.<ref>{{cite book |last1 = Waldor |first1 = Matthew |last2 = Ryan |first2 = Edward |title = Mandell, Douglas and Bennett's Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases |chapter = Vibrio Cholerae |publisher = Saunders |year = 2011 |pages = 2471–2479 }}</ref> Because a dead traveler would often be buried at the site of death, nearby streams could easily be contaminated by the dead body.<ref>{{cite journal |title = Reminiscences of Experience on the Oregon Trail in 1844 |journal = The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society |volume = 2 |issue = 3 |pages = 209–254 |first = John |last = Minto |year = 1901 |jstor = 20609503 }}</ref> Other common diseases along the trail included [[dysentery]], an intestinal infection that causes diarrhea containing blood or mucus,<ref>{{Cite journal |volume = 47 |issue = 5 |pages = 333–335 |pmc = 1752697 |year = 1937 |pmid = 18744287 |title = Dysentery |journal = California and Western Medicine }}</ref> and [[typhoid fever]], another fecal-oral disease.<ref>{{Cite journal |last = Barnett |first = Richard |title = Typhoid Fever |journal = The Lancet |volume = 388 |issue = 10059 |pages = 2467 |doi = 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)32178-X |pmid = 28328460 |year = 2016 |s2cid = 205984562 }}</ref>

Airborne diseases also commonly affect travelers. One such disease was [[diphtheria]], to which young children were particularly susceptible.<ref>{{cite journal |title = To End an Epidemic Lessons from the History of Diphtheria |first = Lawrence |last = Kleinman |journal = The New England Journal of Medicine |year = 1992 |volume = 326 |issue = 11 |pages = 773–777 |doi = 10.1056/NEJM199203123261118 |pmid = 1738395 }}</ref> It could spread quickly in close quarters, such as the parties that traveled the trail.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Diptheria &#91; sic&#93;|journal=Diptheria: Its Origin and Cure|volume=39|pages=32|id={{ProQuest|136627001}}}}</ref>  [[Measles]] was also a difficulty, as it is highly contagious and can have an [[incubation period]] of ten days or longer.<ref>{{cite book | last = Gershone | first = Anne | title =Mandell, Douglas and Bennett's Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases | chapter = Measles Virus (Rubeola) | publisher = Saunders | year = 2011 | pages = 1967–1973}}</ref> Diseases could spread particularly quickly because settlers had no place to [[quarantine]] the sick and because poor sanitation was typical along the route.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/index.html |title = Influenza (Flu) |website = Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |date = October 26, 2018 }}</ref>

==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>

==Legacy==
[[File:Conestoga wagon on Oregon Trail - NARA - 286056 - Restoration.jpg|thumb|upright|Oregon Trail reenactment at [[Scotts Bluff National Monument|Scotts Bluff]]]]

One of the enduring legacies of the Oregon Trail is the expansion of the United States territory to the West Coast. Without the many thousands of United States settlers in Oregon and California, and thousands more on their way each year, it is highly unlikely that this would have occurred.

===Arts, entertainment, and media===
The western expansion, and the Oregon Trail in particular, inspired numerous creative works about the settlers' experiences.

====Commemorative coin====
The [[Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar]] was coined to commemorate the route. Issued intermittently between 1926 and 1939, 202,928 were sold to the public. With 131,050 minted in 1926, that year's issue remains readily available for collectors.

====Music====
The Oregon Trail has featured in various songs, especially in [[western music (North America)|western music]] genres.

"The Oregon Trail" is a song written by [[Peter DeRose]] and [[Billy Hill (songwriter)|Billy Hill]], recorded by [[singing cowboy]] artist [[Tex Ritter]] in 1935, and by Australian country musician [[Tex Morton]] in 1936.

[[Woody Guthrie]] wrote and recorded a song entitled "Oregon Trail" while traveling in the region in 1941. It was the opening track in his ''[[Columbia River Collection]]'' album.

====Games====
The story of the Oregon Trail inspired the educational video game series ''[[The Oregon Trail (series)|The Oregon Trail]]'', which became widely popular in the 1980s and early 1990s.

In 2014, a musical named ''[[The Trail to Oregon!]]'', based on ''The Oregon Trail'' game, with music and lyrics by Jeff Blim and a book by Jeff Blim, Nick Lang and Matt Lang was performed in Chicago and later posted to YouTube by [[StarKid Productions]].<ref>{{cite web |title='The Trail to Oregon' musical review: A new kind of Starkid show |url=https://www.hypable.com/starkids-trail-to-oregon-musical-review/ |website=Hypable |access-date=May 22, 2020 |date=July 14, 2014}}</ref>

====Television====
''[[The Oregon Trail (TV series)|The Oregon Trail]]'' was a television series that ran from September 22 through October 26, 1977, on NBC. The show stars [[Rod Taylor]], Tony Becker, Darleen Carr, [[Charles Napier (actor)|Charles Napier]], and Ken Swofford. Although the show was canceled after six episodes, the remaining seven episodes were later aired on [[BBC 2]] in the United Kingdom,<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.tv.com/the-oregon-trail/show/3275/summary.html |title = The Oregon Trail |publisher = CBS Interactive |access-date = January 11, 2013 |archive-date = June 29, 2011 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110629013729/http://www.tv.com/the-oregon-trail/show/3275/summary.html |url-status = dead }}</ref> the entire series was shown in the UK on BBC1, from November 1977 to January 1978, and on April 13, 2010, [[Timeless Media Group]] (TMG) released in the USA the entire show on six DVDs, running 750 minutes. The set includes 14 original episodes, including the feature-length pilot and the six episodes that did not air on NBC.<ref>{{cite web |first = David |last = Lambert |title = The Oregon Trail – The '70s NBC Show Starring Rod Taylor Comes to DVD with Unaired Episodes |url = http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Oregon-Trail-The-Complete-Series/13459 |website = TV Shows on DVD |date = March 12, 2010 |access-date = April 20, 2015 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150427111342/http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Oregon-Trail-The-Complete-Series/13459 |archive-date = April 27, 2015}}</ref>

The episode of ''[[Teen Titans Go!]]'' titled "Oregon Trail" parodies expeditions that took place on the Oregon Trail, as well as the 1985 video game ''[[The Oregon Trail (1985 video game)|The Oregon Trail]]''.

====Film====
The 1930 [[Western (genre)|Western]] film ''[[The Big Trail]]'' featured [[John Wayne]] in his first starring role as a [[fur trade|fur trapper]] leading a large [[wagon train]] of settlers across the Oregon Trail.

The 1967 film ''[[The Way West (film)|The Way West]]'', starring [[Kirk Douglas]], [[Robert Mitchum]], and [[Richard Widmark]], was based on the [[The Way West|novel of the same name]] by [[A. B. Guthrie, Jr.]] It follows a wagon train of settlers as they make their way from Missouri to Oregon in 1843.

The animated film ''[[Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary]]'' portrays the expedition of a dozen wagons to Oregon, part of which was the young [[Calamity Jane]].

==See also==
* [[Kansas Territory]]
* [[Landmarks of the Nebraska Territory]]
* [[National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center]]
* [[National Historic Trails Interpretive Center]]
* [[Nebraska Territory]]
* [[Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar]]
* [[Route of the Oregon Trail]]
* ''[[The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life]]''
* [[Trailside Center]]
* [[The West as America Art Exhibition]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==

===Primary sources===
* {{Cite book |last=Crawford |first=Medorem |author-link=Medorem Crawford |url=https://www2.sos.wa.gov/legacy/images/publications/sl_crawfordjournal/sl_crawfordjournal.pdf |title=Journal of Medorem Crawford: an account of his trip across the plains with the Oregon pioneers of 1842 |publisher=Star Job Office |year=1897 |oclc=5001642}}
* {{Cite book |last=Hewitt |first=Randall |url=https://www2.sos.wa.gov/legacy/images/publications/sl_hewittnotes/sl_hewittnotes.pdf |title=Notes by the way: memoranda of a journey across the plains, from Dundee, Ill., to Olympia, W. T. May 7, to November 3, 1862 |publisher=Washington Standard |year=1863 |oclc=51465106}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/hoforcalifornia00sour |title=Ho for California! women's overland diaries from the Huntington Library |date=1980 |publisher=Hungtington Library |isbn=978-0-87328-103-4 |editor-last=Myres |editor-first=Sandra L. |editor-link=Sandra Myres |location=San Marino, Cal |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Parkman |first=Francis |author-link=Francis Parkman |title=The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life |title-link=The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life |publisher=[[G.P. Putnam's]] |year=1849 |location=New York |oclc=657133303}}, personal account by a famous historian
* {{Cite book |last=Smedley |first=William |url=https://www2.sos.wa.gov/legacy/images/publications/sl_smedleyacross1862/sl_smedleyacross1862.pdf |title=Across the Plains in '62 |publisher=[publisher not identified] |year=1916 |publication-place=Denver |oclc=4981167}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ward |first=D. B. |url=https://www2.sos.wa.gov/legacy/images/publications/sl_wardacross1853/sl_wardacross1853.pdf |title=Across the Plains in 1853 |publisher=Ward |others=Preface by [[Edmond S. Meany]] |year=1911 |location=Seattle |oclc=466904274}}
* {{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Joseph |url=https://www2.sos.wa.gov/legacy/images/publications/sl_williamstour/sl_williamstour.pdf |title=Narrative of a Tour from the State of Indiana to the Oregon Territory in the Years 1841–2 |publisher=E. Eberstadt |others=Introduction by James C. Bell, Jr. |year=1921 |location=New York |oclc=2095243}}

===Secondary sources===
* {{Cite book |last=Bagley |first=Will |title=So rugged and mountainous: blazing the trails to Oregon and California, 1812-1848 |date=2010 |publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]] |isbn=978-0-8061-4103-9 |series=Overland West |volume=1 |location=Norman}} The first book is a projected four-volume study of the course and impact of Western migration.
* {{Cite book |last=Dary |first=David |title=The Oregon Trail: an American saga |date=2004 |publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf]] |isbn=978-0-375-41399-5 |location=New York}} A one-volume history of the Oregon Trail.
* {{Cite book |last=Faragher |first=John Mack |author-link=John Mack Faragher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vTBlDwAAQBAJ |title=Women and men on the overland trail |date=2001 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=978-0-300-08924-0 |edition=2nd |series=Yale Nota Bene |location=New Haven}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T1sz3w79VrwC |title=The Oregon trail: the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean |date=1972 |publisher=Scholarly Press |isbn=978-0-403-01290-9 |editor=Federal Writers' Project |series=American guide series |location=St. Clair Shores, Mich |oclc=214868}}
* {{Cite book |last=Hanson |first=T. J. |title=Western Passage |publisher=Bookmasters, Inc |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-9705847-0-0 |location=Ashland, OH}}
* {{Cite book |last=Peters |first=Arthur King |url=https://archive.org/details/seventrailswest00pete |title=Seven trails West |publisher=Abbeville Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-1-55859-782-2 |location=New York |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Unruh |first=John D. |title=The plains across: the overland emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60 |title-link=The Plains Across |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |year=1979 |isbn=978-0-252-00698-2 |location=Urbana, Ill.}} The standard scholarly history.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Oregon Trail}}
{{Wikiquote|Oregon Trail}}
{{Wikivoyage|Oregon Trail}}
* [http://www.nps.gov/oreg Oregon National Historic Trail] (National Park Service)
**[https://www.nps.gov/oreg/planyourvisit/maps.htm Oregon Trail map]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120101000101/http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/CS/SSB/Oregon_Trail.shtml Oregon Trail history] (archived from a broken Oregon Department of Transportation link; with maps) 
* [http://video.idahoptv.org/video/2106237361 ''Pathways of Pioneers: Idaho's Oregon Trail Legacy''] – Documentary produced by [[Idaho Public Television]]
* [https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/national-scenic-and-historic-trails/oregon Oregon National Historic Trail] – [[Bureau of Land Management]] page

{{TrailSystem}}
{{Oregon Pioneer History}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Oregon Trail| ]]
[[Category:Columbia River Gorge]]
[[Category:History of Oregon]]
[[Category:History of the Rocky Mountains]]
[[Category:Jefferson Territory]]
[[Category:Lincoln Highway]]
[[Category:National Historic Trails of the United States]]
[[Category:Oregon Country]]
[[Category:Trails and roads in the American Old West]]
[[Category:U.S. Route 30]]
[[Category:Units of the National Landscape Conservation System]]