By the 1840s, all the lands to the west of the Mississippi River had become part of the United States. People heard that Oregon, on the Pacific coast, was lush and green. With so little farming land available in the east, many decided to leave their homes for ever and make the 3000-kilometre (1900-mile) journey west. Over the next 25 years, around half a million people trudged along what came to be known as the Oregon and California trails. But it was a hard and dangerous trip across the “Great American Desert”. Many fell victim to disease, and almost all suffered from hunger, thirst and exhaustion.

On the wagon train

When travelling along the Oregon, California or Mormon Trails, pioneers set out in groups of farm wagons, known as wagon trains. They believed a large group would be safer from wild animals and attack. Travelling overland across America more than 150 years ago was a very different experience from what it is today. There were no roads—only the tracks made by people and wagons that had gone before. There were no towns, although the land was populated by Native Americans.

Encounters with
Native Americans

The lands crossed by the Oregon Trail were home to many Native American peoples. They had lived there for thousands of years, hunting buffalo, trapping and fishing. They lived in villages of tipis, tents made from sticks and buffalo hides. Most Native Americans were friendly to the pioneers and traded buffalo robes and mocassins for food, knives or clothes.

Forts

Eventually, forts were built along the trail. Fort Laramie (in modern-day Wyoming), for example, was a place where fur traders and Native Americans met to buy and sell furs. Here, too, travellers on the trail stocked up on supplies. Later, other forts were built further west along the trail. In the early years, however, there were no stores, no farmhouses—nothing to supply the pioneers with food.

Crossing the Rockies

The Rocky Mountains were the first major obstacle the travellers had to face. Fur trappers, called mountain men, who knew the Rockies well from hunting beaver, had already discovered a fairly easy way across. After following the Platte River, the trail took the travellers overland to Independence Rock, which stood at the entrance of a valley. Here thousands stopped to carve their names in the granite rock (their carvings remain to this day). Crossing this route, called the South Pass, a 30-kilometre (20-mile) low saddle over the Rockies, the travellers entered the American West.

California Trail

Beyond the Rocky Mountains, the trail divided in two. The Oregon Trail followed the Snake River northwestwards to Oregon, while the California Trail led southwest, following the Humboldt River across the desert to the fertile Sacramento Valley. On the way, many of the travellers’ animals perished in the searing heat of the desert. Wagon wheels were soaked to prevent the iron rims falling off the dried-out, shrunken wheels. Dust kicked up by the wagons was so thick, people could not see where they were going.

Willamette Valley, Oregon, was the chosen destination of many of the travellers on the Oregon Trail. It was reached after a very difficult climb over the mountains, which were impassable in winter. Some risked rafting down the treacherous Columbia River for the last few hundred kilometres.