California Trail

Introduction

By 1847, two old fur trading posts marked the start of major alternative paths through Utah and Wyoming toward Northern California. One was Fort Bridger, set up by Jim Bridger in 1842 in what is now Wyoming on the Green River. There, the Mormon Trail turned southwest over the Wasatch Range to the recently founded Salt Lake City, Utah. From Salt Lake City, the Salt Lake Cutoff, established in 1848, went north and west around the Great Salt Lake and met back up with the California Trail at the City of Rocks in present-day Idaho.

The main Oregon and California Trails crossed the Yellow River using various ferries and cutoffs that either led to or bypassed Fort Bridger, then went over a range of hills into the Great Basin drainage of the Bear River. Just past today’s Soda Springs, Idaho, both trails turned northwest, following the Portneuf River valley to Fort Hall, a Hudson’s Bay Company post built in 1836 on the Snake River in Idaho. From Fort Hall, the Oregon and California Trails went about 50 miles southwest along the Snake River Valley to another junction where the Raft and Snake rivers meet.

The California Trail then followed the Raft River to the City of Rocks near the present-day border where Nevada, Idaho, and Utah meet. The Salt Lake and Fort Hall routes were roughly the same distance, about 190 miles. From the City of Rocks, the trail entered present-day Utah along the South Fork of Junction Creek, then followed a series of small streams like Thousand Springs Creek in what is now Nevada until it reached the Humboldt River near today’s Wells, Nevada.

Travelers followed the winding Humboldt River Valley west across the dry Great Basin, getting water, grass, and wood for themselves and their animals. But the water grew more alkaline as they went, trees were almost nonexistent, firewood was just broken brush, and the grass was sparse and dry. Few people enjoyed the Humboldt River Valley passage.

Establishment (1811–1840)

The California and Oregon Trails began as routes carved out by mountain men and fur traders between 1811 and 1840, originally only usable by people on foot or horseback. Robert Stuart and six others discovered South Pass in 1812. This pass offered the gentlest crossing of the continental divide, which separates waters flowing to the Pacific from those flowing to the Atlantic. Stuart was carrying a message east to John Jacob Astor, requesting a new ship for Fort Astoria on the Columbia River after their supply vessel, the Tonquin, exploded.

In 1824, trappers Jedediah Smith and Thomas Fitzpatrick found South Pass again, along with the Sweetwater, North Platte, and Platte River valleys that connect to the Missouri River. British fur traders relied on the Columbia and Snake rivers to move supplies to their posts. After 1824, American fur traders created first pack trails and then wagon routes along the Platte, North Platte, Sweetwater, and Big Sandy River in Wyoming, leading to the Green River, part of the Colorado River system.

There, from 1827 to 1840, a fur trading company hosted the annual Rocky Mountain Rendezvous. At these gatherings, American trappers, mountain men, and Native Americans sold and traded furs and hides while restocking supplies used during the previous year. Each rendezvous lasted only a few weeks and was known as a lively, joyful event open to nearly everyone: free trappers, Native Americans, trappers’ wives and children, travelers, and later even tourists from as far as Europe who came to watch the games and celebrations.

Trapper Jim Beckwourth described the scene as full of mirth, songs, dancing, shouting, trading, running, jumping, singing, racing, target-shooting, storytelling, and frolic, along with all sorts of drinking and gambling that either white men or Indians could dream up. From roughly 1825 to 1834, fur traders initially used pack trains to bring in supplies and carry out the furs they had traded.

Early history and maps of the California Trail (1826–1850)

The first people to explore the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada along what became the California Trail were British and American fur trappers. American trapper Jedediah Smith made two journeys into California and across the Sierra Nevada between 1826 and 1829. On his first trip, he likely entered California via the Mojave River route, later part of the Old Spanish Trail, and left in the spring of 1827 through Ebbetts Pass at 8,730 feet. During his second expedition, he entered California the same way but departed through Oregon.

Smith died in 1831 before he could publish his findings, so his discoveries spread only by word of mouth. From 1828 to 1829, Peter Skene Ogden, leading expeditions for the British Hudson's Bay Company, explored much of the Humboldt River area, which he called the Mary’s River. The company kept these findings secret for many decades. In 1834, Benjamin Bonneville, a U.S. Army officer on leave for a western expedition funded by John Jacob Astor, sent Joseph R. Walker and a small mounted party west from the Green River in what is now Wyoming.

Their mission was to find a route to California. Walker confirmed that the Humboldt River provided a natural path across the Great Basin to the Sierra Nevada. He eventually crossed the Sierra Nevada in southern California via Walker Pass. Bonneville had Washington Irving write up the account of his and Walker’s western explorations in 1838, published as "The Adventures of Captain Bonneville."

Preparation: trail supplies and equipment

By 1846, travelers could find books, pamphlets, and guides detailing the trail. Two years later, local newspapers began printing information about the journey to California and Oregon, including what supplies were needed. After 1849, heavily subsidized mail and news could reach the United States from California via Panama in roughly forty days.

Newspapers of the era also ran articles about California starting in 1848. Once someone decided to make the trip, the typical first step was selling their farm or business and assembling their outfit. According to the 1850 U.S. Census of California, over 95 percent of those who went to California in 1849 were male.

The initial major choice was between the California Trail and various sea routes. At first, about half of the Argonauts traveled by sea and half by land. Those who chose the sea, which was faster but more expensive, mostly lived on or near the East Coast and were accustomed to ships. In contrast, most overland travelers already resided in the Midwest or near the Ohio, Mississippi, or Missouri Rivers.

Almost all of them reached their jumping-off point by steamboat, bringing their animals and supplies. Among the Argonauts who later returned from California, roughly 20 percent came back by sea across the Isthmus of Panama. This became especially common after 1855, when paddle steamer lines and the Panama Railroad reduced the return trip to about forty days, compared to roughly one hundred and forty days by wagon.

Did You Know?

• The trail system began at Missouri River towns such as Independence, St. Joseph, Kanesville, and Omaha.
• Key landmarks included Fort Kearny, South Pass, Independence Rock, and the Forty Mile Desert.
• The final leg required crossing the Sierra Nevada via routes like Donner Pass, Carson Pass, and Roller Pass.