Oregon Trail

(noun)

A 2,000-mile (3,200 km), historic east-west wagon route that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon and locations in between.

Related Terms

Examples of Oregon Trail in the following topics:

  • Oregon and the Overland Trails

    • The Oregon Trail was a 2,000-mile, historic east-west wagon route and emigrant trail that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon and locations in between.
    • The western half of the trail spanned most of then future states of Idaho and Oregon.
    • The path of the Oregon Trail, spanning the present-day states of Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon.
    • So many wagons traveled the Oregon Trail that ruts are still visible along some sections.
    • Examine how establishment of the Oregon and Overland Trails enabled diverse groups to travel west

  • The Migratory Stream

    • They followed the main rivers, crossed the mountains, and ended in Oregon and California.
    • By 1836, when the first migrant wagon train was organized in Independence, Missouri, a wagon trail had been cleared to Fort Hall, Idaho.
    • Wagon trails were cleared further and further west, eventually reaching all the way to the Willamette Valley in Oregon.
    • The eastern half of the trail was also used by travelers on the California Trail (from 1843), Bozeman Trail (from 1863), and Mormon Trail (from 1847), up to the respective locations at which the migrants on each turned off to their separate destinations.
    • In the "Wagon Train of 1843," some 700 to 1,000 migrants headed for Oregon.

  • Expansion and the Mexican-American War

    • In the 1830s, the federal government forcibly deported the southeastern tribes to the Indian territory (now Oklahoma) via the "Trail of Tears. "
    • After the demise of the fur trade, they established trading posts throughout the west, continued trade with the Indians, and served as guides and hunters for the western migration of settlers to Utah, Oregon, and California.
    • Americans asserted a right to colonize vast expanses of North America beyond their country's borders, especially into Oregon, California, and Texas.
    • Major events in the western movement of the U.S. population were the Homestead Act, a law by which, for a nominal price, a settler was given title to 160 acres of land to farm; the opening of the Oregon Territory to settlement; and the Texas Revolution.
    • Other significant events included the opening of the Oregon Trail; the Mormon Emigration to Utah in 1846–47; the California Gold Rush of 1849; the Colorado Gold Rush of 1859; and the completion of the nation's First Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869.

  • The American Indian Wars

    • The western United States had been penetrated by United States forces and settlers before the Civil War: by fur trappers, the Santa Fe Trail, the Oregon Trail, and the Mormon emigration to Utah, as well as by settlement of California and Oregon.
    • In the case of the Santa Fe Trail, this was due to the friendly relationship of the Bents of Bent's Fort with the Cheyenne and Arapaho, and in the case of the Oregon Trail, to the peace established by the Treaty of Fort Laramie.
    • Signed in 1851 between the United States and the plains Indians and the Indians of the northern Rocky Mountains, the treaty allowed passage by migrants and the building of roads and the stationing of troops along the Oregon Trail.
    • They were replaced by the volunteer infantry and cavalry raised by the states of California and Oregon, by the western territorial governments, or the local militias.
    • However, regions of the West that were settled before the Civil War, such as Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, California, and Washington, saw significant conflicts prior to 1860.

  • The Mormon Exodus

    • Today the Mormon Trail is a part of the United States National Trails System, known as the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail.
    • From Council Bluffs, Iowa to Fort Bridger in Wyoming, the trail follows much the same route as the Oregon Trail and the California Trail; these trails are collectively known as the Emigrant Trail.
    • The trail was used for more than 20 years, until the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869.
    • Willie and Edward Martin, met disaster on the trail when they departed late and were caught by heavy snowstorms in Wyoming.
    • Also shown are a portion of the route followed by the Mormon Battalion and the path followed by the handcart companies to the Mormon Trail.

  • Tyler and Texas

    • However, Tyler was unsuccessful in concluding a treaty with the British to fix the boundaries of Oregon.
    • Americans at this time asserted a right to colonize vast expanses of North America beyond their country's borders, especially into Oregon, California, and Texas.
    • Other significant events included the opening of the Oregon Trail; the Mormon Emigration to Utah in 1846–47; the California Gold Rush of 1849; the Colorado Gold Rush of 1859; and the completion of the nation's First Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869.

  • The Transcontinental Railroads

    • The railroad also led to a great decline of traffic on the Oregon and California Trail, which had helped populate much of the West.

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition

    • After spending eighteen long months on the trail and nearly starving to death in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana, the Corps of Discovery finally reached the Pacific Ocean in 1805 and spent the winter of 1805–1806 in Oregon.
    • The men traveled across the North American continent and established relationships with many American Indian tribes, paving the way for fur traders and the establishment of trading posts, which later solidified U.S. claims to Oregon.

  • The California Gold Rush

    • The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to the state in late 1848.
    • Approximately half of those arrived by sea, while half came from the east overland on the California Trail and the Gila River trail.

  • Polk and Expansion

    • Polk was a strong proponent of expansionism and achieved the acquisition of Texas, Oregon, and California during his administration.
    • To balance the interests of North and South, he wanted to acquire the Oregon Country (present-day Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia) as well, and he sought to purchase California from Mexico.
    • Polk put heavy pressure on Britain to resolve the Oregon boundary dispute.
    • The Oregon Treaty of 1846 divided the Oregon Country along the 49th parallel, as in the original American proposal.
    • The portion of Oregon territory acquired by the United States later formed the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and parts of the states of Montana and Wyoming.