The Oregon-California Trail is the corridor of overland routes created by more than 350,000 nineteenth-century emigrants as they moved west with oxen-drawn covered wagons. Beginning in 1841, and for nearly 40 years afterward, hopeful emigrants crossed the boundary of the United States at Missouri and Iowa, and journeyed to destinations of Oregon, California, Washington and Utah. Nineteenth-century travelers measured the trip along the trail not in miles per hour but in miles per day. A good days travel covered twenty miles. Emigrants packed all their belongings into a wagon about the size of a mini-van and headed out onto the Oregon Trail.
Those first emigrant wagon trains across the Oregon trail demonstrated that families could indeed travel overland to the continent's western edge. The Oregon National Historic Trail begins at Independence, Missouri and crosses what is now Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Idaho to its end at Oregon City , Oregon. More than 50,000 emigrants, mostly farming families, followed the Oregon trail to settle in Oregon and Washington. Their 2,000 mile, six month journey represents the largest and longest voluntary overland migration of families in America's westward expansion.
WHY AN OREGON TRAIL: Before 1804, Spaniards, Englishmen, and Americans traveled to North America's western edge aboard tall masted sailing ships. the sailors year long journey took them down the eastern coast of North and South America, around Cape Horn, and north along the Pacific Oceans rough coastline. From here, many sailed on to Asia and South pacific. It was dangerous and expensive. Explorers, fur trappers, and traders found and began to use the wildlife trails that Indians followed across the continents interior. Those same trails provided a link to the west, opening the route for Oregon bound emigrants.
Two circumstances combined to spur the settlement of the Oregon Country. In the late 1830's Great Britain was making rumblings about its ownership of the Pacific Northwest. An afflux of settlers in the area would cement the United States claim to the area and prevent further conflict with England. American leaders believed.
At the same time, the United States was rocked by a depression. Money was tight, unemployment high, and conditions toughest on the lower and middle classes. In 1838 a former missionary to Oregon named Jason Lee toured the eastern states extolling the virtues of the west, and Oregon in particular.
To a struggling people, his words held the promise of a new life. In the spring of 1841, about 500 people gathered at Independence, Missouri, the last settlement on the western frontier, prepared to make the trek to Oregon. They were not well organized; some had oxcarts, others mule and horse drawn wagons, and a few on foot. Without a knowledgeable guide they quickly became discouraged and most abandoned the journey. Only about 30 of them finally reached Oregon, traveling with trappers and a party of Jesuit missionaries.
The first organized trip to Oregon was made in the spring of 1842 under the guidance of Dr. Elijah White. One hundred people gathered at Independence, and with a professional guide from Fort Hall in present day Idaho, set out for the Willamette Valley of Western Oregon along the route, first traveled by trappers for John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company.
Two thousand miles later, across prairies, towering mountains and parched deserts, White's party completed its improbable trek. Half of them settled in Oregon, while the other half moved to California the following year. Despite the hardships, Elijah White and his party proved that the journey could be made. They blazed a trail and kindled the hopes of thousands more.
Things really got rolling in 1843 when one group (nearly a thousand persons) set off in covered wagons. They were on their way to the Oregon Country. Today we call it the Great Migration of 1843.
Eager to expand the growing nation, the United States government encouraged emigrants to move toward the Oregon Country. Settlements in the west would help America's claim to the land-and American farmers were eager to help their country reach all its potential. Back in the 1840's, Britain and America both claimed the Oregon Country. Each wanted control of the land and its rich resources. The British called the place the Columbian Department; the Americans called it the Oregon Country. Regardless of its name, the huge expanse stretching from the Pacific to the Rockies and from British Columbia to California, was important to both countries governments.
By the late 1840's the land dispute was settled and the 49th parallel was established as the boundary seperating British lands from U.S. soil. Shortly thereafter, in 1850, congress enacted the Donation Land Claim Act as kind of a reward to pioneers for settling in Oregon. Under provisions of the Donation Land CLaim Act, married couples could claim up to one square mile of land-land equally held by husband and wife. Although the land emigrants claimed was part of ancient Native land-use patterns, no treaties were yet ratified to obtain rights to the land from Native Americans. Those would come later, with tragic consequences.
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