The Oregon Trail was the major route for immigrants traveling from the settlements on the edge of the eastern United States to the promised land of Oregon. It extended 2170 miles from its eastern departure points of St. Joseph, Westport, and Independence, Missouri, to its final destination in the Willamette Valley of present day Oregon. Much of its eastern segment followed the valleys of the Platte and North Platte Rivers.
Some immigrants were bound for California instead of Oregon. They turned Southward from the Oregon Trail in what is now eastern Idaho and followed the California Trail through the Great Basin and across the Sierra Nevada into California.
More than 350,000 people made the trek westward between 1841 and 1867. Their numbers swelled from a trickle in 1841 to almost 50,000 in 1852. They endured rugged country, searing heat, violent prairie storms, accidents, and the ravages of cholera. Their reward was the fertile farming country, the rich forests, and the mild climate of the fabled Oregon country.
After gold was discovered in California in 1848, gold-seekers joined the westward bound pioneers. They left the Oregon Trail and followed the California Trail on to the gold fields. After 1847, Mormon pioneers also joined the throng, headed not for Oregon or California, but for their settlement near the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The Mormon Trail began at Omaha or Council Bluffs, and followed the North side of the Platte and North Platte Rivers until it passed Fort Laramie. There it crossed the river and joined the Oregon Trail for some distance before veering South into the Great Basin of Utah.
Fort Laramie (and before it Fort John) was a major stop for immigrants traveling westward along the Oregon Trail. It was a resupply point where they could pause to replenish their supplies, repair their wagons, and perhaps even trade for fresh draft animals with which to continue their journey. It was here that the pioneers often had to decide which of their cherished possessions might have to be left behind in order that their oxen or mules could handle the rougher trail that lay ahead.
