FREE ESSAY ON OREGON TRAIL

OREGON TRAIL

CROSSING THE Great Plains
The Oregon Trail was an overland emigrant route in the United States from the Missouri
River to the Columbia River country, was the way to travel back in the 1840's through the
1860's. In 1843 the "Great Emigration" began and the west would never be the same after
the out set of the travelers. The pioneers by wagon train did not, however, follow any
single narrow route. In open country the different trains might spread out over a large
area, only to converge again for river crossings, mountain passes. In time many alternate
routes also developed. They originated at various places on the Missouri, although
Independence were favorite starting points, the routes taken along with the wagon trails
are the key points in which made it possible to travel west.
Those starting from Independence followed the same route as the Santa Fe Trail for some
40 miles, then traveled to the Platte and generally followed that river to the North
Platte and then the South Platte. Crossing the South Platte, the main trail followed the
North Platte to Fort Laramie, then to the present Casper, Wyo. and through the mountains
by the South Pass to the Colorado River. The travelers then went to Fort Bridger, from
which the Mormon Trail continued to the Great Salt Lake, while the Oregon Trail went
northwest across a divide to Fort Hall, on the Snake River. The California Trail branched
off to the southwest, but the Oregon Trail continued to Fort Boise. From that point the
travelers had to make the hard climb over the Blue Mountains. Once those were crossed,
paths diverged somewhat; many went to Fort Walla Walla before proceeding down the south
bank of the Columbia River, traversing the Columbia's gorge where it passes through the
Cascade Mountains to the Willamette Valley, where the early settlement centered. The end
of the trail shifted as settlement spread.
The mountain men were chiefly responsible for making the route known, and Thomas
Fitzpatrick and James Bridger were renowned as guides. The first genuine emigrant train
was that led by John Bidwell in 1841, half of which went to California, the rest
proceeding from Fort Hall to Oregon. The first train of emigrants to reach Oregon was
that led by Elijah White in 1842. In 1843 occurred the "Great Emigration" of more than
900 persons and more than 1,000 head of stock. By 1845 the emigrants reached a total of
more than 3,000. Although it took the average train about six months to traverse the
2,000-mile route, the trail was used for many years. Travel gradually declined with the
coming of the railroads, and the trail was abandoned in the 1870s. Many trail sites are
now preserved in the Oregon National Historic Society. 
As the people traveled across the Great Plains and into the deserts they had some great
obstacles to over come? But what kept them going was the new life they were ready to
embark on, and embrace with open arms. All the hard work and effort that the Oregon Trail
travelers put in would go down in history with America.
Bibliography
Bibliography
1) F. Parkman, The Oregon Trail (1989).
2) Federal Writers' Project, The Oregon Trail (1939, repr. 1972).
3) E. Meeker, Story of the Lost Trail of Oregon (1984).
4) J. E. Brown, Oregon Trail Revisited (1988).