The Road to Oregon:
The Origins of the Trail
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"I loved the game. My favorite part of the game was buying all of my supplies for the trip and getting ready to leave for the trail from Independence, Missouri."
-Lucia, Sophomore |
The Starting Point
Setting off from Independence, Missouri and making way to Walla Walla, Washington, the route of the Oregon Trail crosses through Kansas until it reaches the vicinity of Grand Island. The eastern part of the trail was not as well traveled as the western half until the 1830s because of the inaccessibility of the terrain.
http://ci.independence.mo.us/nftm/graphics/courthouse1850.jpeg
Independence, Missouri did not become the “official” starting point of the trail until 1832. The small ordinary village was eagerly developed by fur trappers, missionaries and thousands of emigrates as the jumping point onto the trail. The populations of towns inhabited by trappers, traders and missionaries saw significant increase from the 1810s to the 1830s. In Illinois by 1840, the population of the State had grown from 476,189 people from 12,000 in 1810 [1]. The mid- west was a region confident of growth and progress. Especially Post-Panic of 1837, there was stimulation of interest in Oregon. Emigration rates to Oregon began to see noticeable increases in 1841 and 1842 with executive interest and investment of the region led by President Tyler. During his administration, full US acquisition of the region from Britain was attained, and a visably increased dialogue concerning emigration into Oregon and its neighbors spread throughtout the Nation [1]. In 1847 alone, 4,500 travelers went to Oregon and 1,000 to California in search of land [1].
Along the Course
The physical trail itself contained many options and adventures. Covering over 2,020 miles of land, the first wagons began traveling the Trail in 1830 [2]. Significant emigration began around the 1840s, and tens of thousands were departing from Missouri each year [2]. The first and most western part of the Trail was not mapped until 1811 when Wilson Price Hunt’s overland Astorians consisting of 60 men and a female Native American interpreter began surveying the land. For different travelers, the trails held different names including; the Platte Trail, the Great Platte Trail, the Emigrant Road, the Oregon Trace, or the Road to Oregon. In 1848, Francis Parkman was credited for officially naming the Oregon and California Trail [1]. To traveling Mormons, the trail was commonly known as the Mormon Trail or the Great Salt Lake Trail. The Washakie band of Eastern Shoshones referred to the trail as the White Topped Wagon Road while other Native Americans called it the Great Medicine Road of the Whites [1].
Other Trails
According to Historian Wilbur Schramm, the Oregon Trail was different from other trails in the surrounding area. The Santa Fe Trail was a trade route to the Spanish southwest and the Indian Trails was primary used by war and hunting parties. Instead, the Oregon Trail was purely a “settler’s road to the trans-mountain west” [2].
Copyright © 2000, Frederick Smoot. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.tngenweb.org/tnletters/usa-west.htm
Lewis and Clark
Furthermore, the Oregon Trail was not the first route into the west. The Lewis and Clark expedition of 1802 was funded by the Jefferson’s administration to survey the physical, topographical and biological characteristics of America’s undiscovered West [1]. Instructed to “take notice of the country, its general face, soil, rivers, mountains, its production of animal, vegetable and mineral,” the travels of Lewis and Clark established a tradition of writings that reflected a national tone of physical and psychological exploration of the American west [1]. However, the Oregon Trail and expeditions of Lewis and Clark are often mistaken for one another when actually, neither trail traveled the same region and held different purposes [1]. The travels of Lewis and Clark established precedence for domestic policy and campaigned for a greater awareness of our Nation’s physical interior, while the Oregon Trail signified a national and spiritual movement of Americans to the west.
Work Cited:
[1] Ghent, W.J. The Road to Oregon: A Chronicle of the Great Emigrant Trail.
Longmans, Green and CO. London: 1929.
[2] Schramm, Wilber. A New Englander on the Road to Oregon. The New England Quarterly, Vol.13, No. 1 (Mar, 1940), 49-64.
