Overland Trail

(noun)

A stagecoach and wagon trail in the American west during the 19th century.

Related Terms

Examples of Overland Trail in the following topics:

  • Oregon and the Overland Trails

    • The Oregon and Overland Trails were two principal routes that moved people and commerce from the east to the west in the 19th century.
    • The Overland Trail (also known as the Overland Stage Line) was a stagecoach and wagon trail in the American west during the 19th century.
    • While explorers and trappers had used portions of the route since the 1820s, the Overland Trail was most heavily used in the 1860s as an alternative route to the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails through central Wyoming.
    • The Overland Stage Company owned by Ben Holladay famously used the Overland Trail to run mail and passengers to Salt Lake City, Utah, via stagecoaches in the early 1860s.
    • Examine how establishment of the Oregon and Overland Trails enabled diverse groups to travel west

  • The Western Frontier

    • In addition to river travel, the Oregon and Overland Trails allowed for increased travel and migration to the West.

  • The California Gold Rush

    • Approximately half of those arrived by sea, while half came from the east overland on the California Trail and the Gila River Trail.

  • Transportation: Roads, Canals, and Railroads

    • Water and river transportation were central to the national economy, while most overland transportation was by horse, which made it difficult to move large quantities of goods.
    • The suggestion was controversial: Anti-Federalists opposed expanding government power, but many others were persuaded by the compelling need for overland roads for military operations as well as for general commerce.
    • Today, much of the canal is a long, thin park with canoeing and a 62.5-mile hiking and biking trail (constructed on the alignment of the mule tow paths).

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition

    • Establishing an overland route to the Pacific also would bolster U.S. claims to the Pacific Northwest.
    • 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 Migratory Stream

    • 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 1846, the Barlow Road was completed around Mount Hood, providing a rough but completely passable wagon trail from the Missouri river to the Willamette Valley: about 2,000 miles.

  • 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.

  • Grant's Pursuit of Lee

    • General Grant's Union Army pursued General Lee's Confederate Army in the Overland Campaign, resulting in an important victory for the Union.
    • Grant's Overland Campaign was a series of battles fought in Virginia during May and June 1864.
    • This represented a change of strategy from that of Grant's Overland Campaign, in which confronting and defeating Lee's army in the open was the primary goal.
    • This map shows the Overland Campaign, from the Battle of the Wilderness to crossing the James River.
    • Describe Grant's Overland Campaign in pursuit of Lee and the resulting Union victory

  • American Indian Policy and the Trail of Tears

    • This abrupt and forced removal resulted in the deaths of more than 4,000 Cherokees on what became known as the "Trail of Tears."
    • In 1987, about 2,200 miles of trails were authorized by federal law to mark the removal of seventeen detachments of the Cherokee people.
    • Called the "Trail of Tears National Historic Trail," it traverses portions of nine states and includes land and water routes.
    • This map illustrates the route of the Trail of Tears.

  • Racial Prejudice in the Jackson Era

    • Along the way, many died of disease and deprivation in what became known as the "Trail of Tears".
    • Identify the demographic groups in which Jacksonian ideals found most favor and describe the Trail of Tears