Oregon Trail
A 2170-mile wagon route from Missouri to Oregon.
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The Oregon Trail was a 2170-mile east–west wagon route connecting the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon Territory. Laid by fur traders and trappers from about 1811 to 1840, it was initially passable only on foot or horseback. By 1836, wagon trails had been cleared to Fort Hall, Idaho, and eventually reached the Willamette Valley, making the trail complete.
History
The first land route across the present-day contiguous United States was mapped by the Lewis and Clark Expedition between 1804 and 1806, following instructions from President Thomas Jefferson to find a direct and practicable water communication across the continent for commerce. Although Lewis and William Clark found a path to the Pacific Ocean, it was neither direct nor practicable for prairie schooner wagons without considerable road work. The two passes they found through the Rocky Mountains—Lemhi Pass and Lolo Pass—proved much too difficult.
This route was shorter and faster than their westward path but was too rough for wagons and controlled by the Blackfoot tribes. The expedition confirmed there was no easy route through the northern Rockies as Jefferson had hoped, but it mapped the Platte and Snake River valleys that bookend the Oregon Trail, showing the way for mountain men who within a decade found a better crossing.
More in Trails and Roads in the American Old West
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Oregon Trail (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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