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The
Oregon Trail became
one of the key migration routes that pioneers crossed on their way to
the vast west. Spanning over half the continent the trail
proceeded over 2,170 miles west through territories that would later
become
Missouri,
Kansas,
Nebraska,
Wyoming ,
Idaho,
and
Oregon.
The long journey through endless plains, rolling hills, and mountain
passes, began in Independence,
Missouri
and ended at the Columbia River in
Oregon .
The route of the
Oregon Trail began to
be scouted as early as 1823 by fur traders and explorers. By the
1830s, it was used regularly by mountain men, traders, missionaries,
and military expeditions.
At the same time, small groups of
individuals and the occasional family attempted to follow the trail,
with some succeeding in arriving at Fort Vancouver in
Washington .
On May 16, 1842 the first
organized wagon train on the
Oregon Trail set out
from Elm Grove,
Missouri,
with more than 100 pioneers. The following year, an estimated
800 immigrants arrived in the Willamette Valley. Hundreds of thousands
more would follow, especially after gold was discovered in
California in 1849.
While the first few parties organized
and departed from Elm Grove,
Missouri,
the
Oregon Trails
generally designated starting point was Independence or Westport,
Missouri. The
trail ended at
Oregon
City,
Oregon ,
which was the proposed capital of the
Oregon
Territory at the time. However, many settlers branched off or grew
exhausted short of this goal and settled at convenient or promising
locations along the way.
At many places along the trail, alternate
routes called "cutoffs" were established, either to shorten the trail,
or to get around difficult terrain. The Lander and Sublette cutoffs
provided shorter routes through the mountains than the main route,
bypassing Fort Bridger. In later years, the Salt Lake cutoff provided
a route to Salt Lake City. |
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