Who were the original creators of the Oregon Trail?
While Lewis and Clark had made their way west from 1804 to 1806, merchants, traders and trappers were also among the first people to forge a path across the Continental Divide. But it was missionaries who really blazed the Oregon Trail.
Who were some famous people on the Oregon Trail?
Who were some famous pioneers?
- Wild Bill Hickok. American frontiersman. …
- William Clark. American explorer. …
- Meriwether Lewis. American explorer. …
- Daniel Boone. American frontiersman. …
- Brigham Young. American religious leader. …
- Kit Carson. American frontiersman. …
- George Rogers Clark. American military leader and explorer. …
- Davy Crockett.
Why was the Oregon Trail so important?
Why is the Oregon Trail so important? The Oregon Trail has attracted such interest because it is the central feature of one of the largest mass migrations of people in American history . Between 1840 and 1860, from 300,000 to 400,000 travelers used the 2,000-mile overland route to reach Willamette Valley, Puget Sound, Utah, and California ...
Who are the people that traveled the Oregon Trail?
The Oregon Trail was heavily traveled from 1841 to 1869 by Oregon settlers, missionaries, Mormons, gold-seekers, the Overland Stage line, and the Pony Express. The exact numbers remain a mystery, but researchers estimate that over 300,000 emigrants crossed the western frontier on the Oregon Trail.
When was the Oregon Trail first discovered?
The Oregon Trail developed from the discovery in 1812 of a wagon-safe route over the Continental Divide at South Pass in present-day Wyoming by Robert Stuart, a Pacific Fur Company man returning from Fort Astor.
Who were the first settlers in the Oregon Trail?
The Wyeth-Lee Party was the first group of settlers to follow the entire route of the Oregon Trail. They were convinced by employees of the Hudson's Bay Company to leave their wagons at Fort Hall and continue on to the Willamette Valley by pack animals, an inconvenient but successful tactic.
Who was the first leader of the Oregon Trail?
Missionaries Blaze the Oregon Trail Merchant Nathan Wyeth led the first missionary group west in 1834 where they built an outpost in present-day Idaho.
Who built Oregon Trail?
The Oregon Trail is a series of educational computer games. The first game was originally developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) in 1974.
Who founded Oregon?
John Jacob Astor, as the head of the Pacific Fur Company, began European American settlement of the Oregon country with the establishment of a trading post at Astoria in 1811.
Who led the Oregon Trail?
In 1842, Elijah White led an organized wagon train of 100 people with an experienced guide. Two thousand miles later, across prairies, towering mountains and parched deserts unfamiliar to eastern farmers, they completed the trek.
When did Lewis and Clark discover the Oregon Trail?
The first land route across the present-day continental United States was mapped by the Lewis and Clark Expedition between 1804 and 1806.
What started the Oregon Trail?
From about 1811 to 1840 the Oregon Trail was laid down by traders and fur trappers. It could only be traveled by horseback or on foot. By the year 1836, the first of the migrant train of wagons was put together. It started in Independence, Missouri and traveled a cleared trail that reached to Fort Hall, Idaho.
Does the Oregon Trail still exist?
Although the original Oregon Trail led weary travelers from Independence, Missouri, to where Oregon City is located today, now, the Oregon Trail starts in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and doesn't end until Cannon Beach, Oregon, turning it into a full cross-country trip.
What were the 3 real enemies of the settlers?
Quite the contrary, most native tribes were quite helpful to the emigrants. The real enemies of the pioneers were cholera, poor sanitation and, surprisingly, accidental gunshots.
What was the first name of the wagon leader?
Ben Kern: Leader of the Wagon Train - American Profile.
Which famous pioneer traveled the Oregon Trail six times?
Ezra MeekerPersonal detailsBornEzra Manning MeekerDecember 29, 1830 Butler County, Ohio, U.S.DiedDecember 3, 1928 (aged 97) Seattle, Washington, U.S.Resting placeWoodbine Cemetery, Puyallup, Washington, U.S. 47°10′14″N 122°18′8″W22 more rows
When was the Oregon Trail named a national historic trail?
The National Park Service named it a National Historic Trail in 1981 and continues to educate the public on its importance.
What states did the Oregon Trail lead to?
The trail was arduous and snaked through Missouri and present-day Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho and finally into Oregon. Without the Oregon Trail and the passing of the Oregon Donation Land Act in 1850, which encouraged settlement in the Oregon Territory, American pioneers would have been slower to settle the American West in the 19th century.
What were the wagons on the Oregon Trail?
Contrary to popular belief, most of the wagons that journeyed the Oregon Trail were prairie schooners and not larger, heavier Conestoga wagons.
Why did the Oregon Trail become a well-beaten path?
Travelers often left warning messages to those journeying behind them if there was an outbreak of disease, bad water or hostile American Indian tribes nearby. As more and more settlers headed west, the Oregon Trail became a well-beaten path and an abandoned junkyard of surrendered possessions.
Why did the Oregon Trail leave in late spring?
Leaving in late spring also ensured there’d be ample grass along the way to feed livestock. As the Oregon Trail gained popularity, it wasn’t unusual for thousands of pioneers to be on the path at the same time, especially during the California Gold Rush.
How long did it take to travel the Oregon Trail?
Life on the Oregon Trail. Planning a five- to six-month trip across rugged terrain was no easy task and could take up to a year. Emigrants had to sell their homes, businesses and any possessions they couldn’t take with them. They also had to purchase hundreds of pounds of supplies including: flour. sugar.
What was the most important item on the trail?
rifles and ammunition. By far, the most important item for successful life on the trail was the covered wagon. It had to be sturdy enough to withstand the elements yet small and light enough for a team of oxen or mules to pull day after day. Most wagons were about six feet wide and twelve feet long.
Who was the first person to travel the Oregon Trail?
Portions of what was to become the Oregon Trail were first used by trappers, fur traders, and missionaries (c. 1811–40) who traveled on foot and horseback. Until the trail’s development as a wagon route, however, people of European descent (whites) in eastern North America who wished to travel to California or Oregon generally went by ship around the southern tip of South America, an arduous and often harrowing sea journey that could take nearly a year to complete. Thus, before the turn of the 19th century few whites had ventured into the vast territory west of the Mississippi River that came to be included in the U.S. government’s 1802 Louisiana Purchase. One of those was the French Canadian trapper and explorer Toussaint Charbonneau. He and Shoshone wife Sacagawea were instrumental members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–06), the government’s first attempt to systematically explore, map, and report on its newly acquired lands and the Oregon country that lay beyond them.
How long was the Oregon Trail?
The Oregon Trail, which stretched for about 2,000 miles (3,200 km), flourished as the main means for hundreds of thousands of emigrants to reach the Northwest from the early 1840s through the 1860s.
What was the name of the trail that led to the American West?
It was one of the two main emigrant routes to the American West in the 19th century, the other being the southerly Santa Fe Trail from Independence to Santa Fe (now in New Mexico ). In addition, branches from each main trail provided connections to destinations in California, and a spur of the northerly Oregon route, part of the Oregon Trail, ...
What are the dangers of the Oregon Trail?
Count diphtheria, dysentery, drowning, accident, and exhaustion as some of the dangers along the Oregon Trail. An overview of the Oregon Trail. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. See all videos for this article. Oregon Trail, also called Oregon-California Trail, in U.S. history, an overland trail between Independence, Missouri, and Oregon City, ...
What was the name of the trail that Robert Stuart and his companions took to the Rocky Mountains?
Astor’s expedition, in dire need of supplies and help, sent members back east in 1812. During that journey Robert Stuart and his companions discovered the South Pass in southwestern Wyoming, a 20-mile (32-km) gap in the Rocky Mountains that offered the lowest (and easiest) crossing of the Continental Divide.
Where is the Oregon Trail?
Ore gon Trail, also called Oregon-California Trail, in U.S. history, an overland trail between Independence, Missouri, and Oregon City, near present-day Portland, Oregon, in the Willamette River valley. It was one of the two main emigrant routes to the American West in the 19th century, the other being the southerly Santa Fe Trail ...
Who discovered the Pass of Lewis and Clark?
Not until trappers Jedediah Smith and Thomas Fitzpatrick rediscovered the pass in 1824 did that critical route through the mountains became widely known.
Who discovered the Oregon Trail?
The Oregon Trail developed from the discovery in 1812 of a wagon-safe route over the Continental Divide at South Pass in present-day Wyoming by Robert Stuart, a Pacific Fur Company man returning from Fort Astor.
Where did the Oregon Trail begin?
Travel west on the Oregon Trail began at several towns on the Missouri River, from Independence to Council Bluffs, and then followed routes west on both sides of the Platte River. Companies of wagons formed, emigrants purchased supplies, and the group followed the developing ruts west. James Miller’s 1848 diary entry describes a typical small company: “We had our outfit, teams [three wagons, two ox teams, one horse team] and necessary provisions for the trip, which consisted of 200 pounds of flour for each person (10 of us), 100 pounds of bacon for each person, a proportion of corn meal, dried apples and peaches, beans, salt, pepper, rice, tea, coffee, sugar and many smaller articles for such a trip; also a medicine chest, plenty of caps, powder and lead. Our company was made up of David O'Neill, one wagon, two boys; two Catholic priests [Rev. J. Lionet and Fr. Lampfrit] and their servant; David Huntington and wife, three children; David Stone and wife, two children; George Hedger and William Smith, George A. Barnes and wife, L.D. Purdeau, Lawrence Burns, James Costello, Jacob Conser and wife, two children; George Wallace, Joseph Miller and wife, three sons and daughter. ”
What is the Oregon Trail?
In popular culture, the Oregon Trail is perhaps the most iconic subject in the larger history of Oregon. It adorns a recent Oregon highway license plate, is an obligatory reference in the resettlement of Oregon, and has long attracted study, commemoration, and celebration as a foundational event in the state’s past. The Oregon Trail was first written about by an American historian in 1849, while it was in active use by migrants, and it subsequently was the subject of thousands of books, articles, movies, plays, poems, and songs. The trail continues as the principal interest of a modern-day organization—the Oregon-California Trails Association—and of major museums in Oregon, Idaho, and Nebraska.
Why is the Oregon Trail important?
The Oregon Trail has attracted such interest because it is the central feature of one of the largest mass migrations of people in American history.
How many miles did the wagon train travel?
Wagon trains could average from twelve to fifteen miles per travel day, but most had to pause because of conditions and some did not travel on Sundays. In many sections, the trail spread across miles of terrain, as successive emigrants sought easier transit.
When was the Oregon Trail written?
The Oregon Trail was first written about by an American historian in 1849, while it was in active use by migrants, and it subsequently was the subject of thousands of books, articles, movies, plays, poems, and songs. The trail continues as the principal interest of a modern-day organization—the Oregon-California Trails Association—and ...
When was Fort Kearny founded?
Most groups tried to set out by mid-April. Their goal was to reach Fort Kearny, founded in 1848 near present-day Kearny, Nebraska, by May 15; Fort Laramie in present-day Wyoming by mid-June; South Pass on the Fourth of July; and Oregon by mid-September.
Who were the first people to travel the Oregon Trail?
In 1836, two couples were the first to travel the Oregon Trail with a covered wagon for purposes other than trade. Narcissa and Marcus Whitman, and Henry and Eliza Spalding, were Christian missionaries.
How did the Pioneers travel on the Oregon Trail?
How did people travel on the Oregon Trail? Pioneers travelled along the Oregon Trail by foot, horseback, or with wagons. They had to bring enough food for the entire journey, as well as the things they needed for their new life. Wagons were often pulled by oxen as they were strong, but they were very slow.
How long is the Oregon Trail?
The Oregon Trail was the route used by thousands of people to cross from the east, over the Great Plains, to the west. It was 3,200km long.
When can you not travel the Oregon Trail?
People were advised not to travel the Oregon Trail in winter, as it froze, and not to travel until April at the earliest. This would allow the grass to grow, so that their animals could graze along the route.
When was the Oregon to California Trail established?
Originating in part from a number of Native footpaths, the development of the Oregon–to–California route occurred in segments, beginning in the 1820s when HBC established a route that followed higher ground through the Willamette Valley to the west to avoid marshy areas near the river. Crossing the height-of-land into the Umpqua River drainage by the mid-1820s, the trail descended Elk Creek to the Umpqua, whose banks provided a gentle path west to the coast while a short distance upriver offered an equally easy path southward to the streams of the main Umpqua Valley.
When did wagons start traveling?
Wagons first began using the Oregon portion of the trail in 1846 when the Southern Emigrant Road, also known as the Applegate Trail, opened. Traveling west over the Cascades from the upper Klamath Basin, wagon trains joined the Oregon–to–California route in the southern Bear Creek Valley near present-day Ashland; from there, the Applegate Trail followed the same route to Willamette Valley settlements. Because the old north-south trail had not yet been improved for wagons, the first emigrants encountered an extremely difficult passage down the narrow and steep Canyon Creek to the Umpqua.
How many people traveled the Oregon Trail?
The exact number of travelers who took the Oregon Trail has been lost to the sands of time. However, according to Wolf, it's been estimated that "around 400,000 people" made the trip.
How long did it take the Buck brothers to get to Oregon?
Altogether, it took the pair around four months to get from Kansas City, Missouri, to Portland, Oregon.
Where do the Rocky Mountains start?
The Rocky Mountains begin in New Mexico and continue northward into the upper recesses of British Columbia. But the mountain range doesn't go uninterrupted. One notable gap occurs in southern Wyoming, where the Rockies are punctuated by a flat, grass-covered prairie that's aptly called the South Pass.
Introduction
Background
- From the earliest decades of the Republic, groups of migrants headed west from the established states to stake out homesteads on the western periphery of institutional society. They traveled first across the Appalachian Mountains into the Old Northwest—today’s states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan—then from the South to populate Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missour…
Setting Off
- Travel west on the Oregon Trail began at several towns on the Missouri River, from Independence to Council Bluffs, and then followed routes west on both sides of the Platte River. Companies of wagons formed, emigrants purchased supplies, and the group followed the developing ruts west. James Miller’s 1848 diary entry describes a typical small company: “We had our outfit, teams [th…
The Trail in Oregon
- By the time overlanders reached the Oregon Country in present-day southeastern Idaho, they had traveled nearly two-thirds of their journey, but the most difficult sections lay ahead. At Fort Boise, established by the Hudson’s Bay Companyin 1834 at the confluence of the Owyhee and Snake Rivers, the trail crossed the Snake at a wagon ford 400 hundred...
Consequences
- The first Oregon Trail emigrants to reach Oregon followed in wake of earlier agriculturalists, retired Hudson’s Bay Company employees who had settled out in the lush Willamette Valley. “The land itself,” an early emigrant wrote home, “cannot be excelled anywhere in the world in fertility and productivity, for everything one plants grows luxuriantly and abundantly.”Low-cost homeste…