Novels
Paleo-
Indians
Plains
Indians
Trade Guns
Explorers
Mountain Men
Western
Expansion
Forest Fires
Home Page Article Links
Questions or Suggestions
Historical Facts of the Oregon Trail and America's Western Expansion
Related Oregon Trail Website Articles:
Oregon Country
Lander Cutoff
Historical Landmarks
Mormon Trail
Willey Martin Handcart
Companies
Sarah Crossley Sessions
Hole-in-the-Rock Trail
The Oregon Trail article is not a day by day account of travel, but a series of factual historical trivia related to the Oregon Country, western expansion, and the Oregon Trail.
The Oregon Trail pioneered by the Astorians in 1812 opened up a new way of life for a great many Americans. The first non-missionary family to farm in Oregon Country traveled the Oregon Trail in 1840. This was the family of Joel Walker, the brother of mountain man Joseph Walker. By the same token, the Oregon Trail sounded the death knell for a great many Native Americans. The first settlers over South Pass on the Oregon Trail signaled the end for millions of buffalo and the Plains Indians.
Forty-six years after the first pioneers traveled the Oregon Trail...the last buffalo hunt was held in the Judith Valley, and the vast majority of Plains Indians were on reservations.
As this country expanded and defined itself, there is no doubt tragedies occurred, i. e. Trail of Tears, Moravian Massacre. Similar wrongs have happened throughout world history, and are still happening today in Russia, many third world countries, and Muslim countries. Despite what we may want to believe, this has been the pattern for all developing countries, and it was going on long before there was an America. From a biblical sense, it started with Cain and Abel.
The history of the Oregon, Mormon, and California trails cannot be separated from the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade. Mountain men not only trapped and explored the way West, with the exception of the Mormon Trail, mountain men led the first wagon trains over the trails.
A great many people paid a huge price to live, or even survive, in the West. Oregon Trail pioneers struggled West for free land and a better life; Mormon emigrants went West to escape religious persecution. White Americans took the land from Native Americans that had taken the land from other Native Americans. Striving for a better life, religious persecution, and one people taken another peoples land are cornerstones of World History.
Prior
to 1846, the
Oregon Country was the territory west of the Continental Divide from northern
California to the southern border of Alaska. The settlement of the Oregon Country
boundary at the forty-ninth parallel in 1846, and the signing of the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848 brought the future western states of Washington,
Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, and Arizona under the
American flag.
America's Western Expansion
For
the Mexican government to give up almost half of Mexico, the American government
paid Mexico fifteen million dollars and assumed debts of three million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
for a total of eighteen million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Part of this
settlement was the Mexican Government relinquishing any claims over the annexing
of Texas into the Union.
The
Guadalupe Hidalgo treaty
increased the size of the
United States by about one-third (this includes Texas)--an addition greater than the Louisiana Purchase.
At
various times, Spain, Russia, England, and the United States claimed the
Oregon Country. The only people with a real claim on the land were the American
Indians.
Why didn't
the American Indians
have any say in the Oregon Country settlement? The reason is:
In 1452, the Catholic Pope Nicholas V issued to King Alfonso V of Portugal a proclamation declaring war against all non-Christians throughout the world, and specifically sanctioning and promoting the conquest, colonization, and exploitation of non-Christian nations and their territories. This “Doctrine of Discovery” gave Christian countries the rights to the lands of non-Christians.
In 1823, the United States Supreme Court decided in the Johnson v. McIntosh decision that, "as a result of European discovery, the Native Americans had a right to occupancy and possession." But "tribal rights to complete sovereignty were necessarily diminished by the principle discovery gave exclusive title to those who made it." Chief Justice John Marshall observed that European nations had assumed "ultimate dominion" over the lands of America during the Age of Discovery, and that upon "discovery" the Indians lost "their rights to complete sovereignty, as independent nations," and retained only a right of "occupancy" in their lands"
It
was the Doctrine of Discovery that gave Rene-Robert La Salle the right to stand
at the mouth of the Mississippi River and declare all the drainage of
the Mississippi River belonged to the King of France.
The
1823 opinion on the Doctrine of Discovery by Chief Justice John Marshal is still
upheld by the United
States Legal system.
In 1806, Lt.
Zebulon Pike
explored the Great Plains and into the Rocky Mountains. Lt. Pike referred to the
plains as "the Great American Desert". Pike's opinion was confirmed by Major
Steven Long, who led an expedition West in 1819. Major Long concluded the entire
region was unfit for human habitation.
William Ashley expressed
similar view as Lt. Pike in a letter to
Fort Atkinson. And so, any route to the Oregon Country was of
little interest to most people until 1840 when the first
homesteader traveled over
what would be the
Oregon Trail.
The Astorian Robert Stuart
and six men were the first non-Indians to travel over what would become the
Oregon Trail in 1812.
The
depression following the War of 1812 left little interest in western expansion
despite a Missouri Gazette editorial on Stuart's path being an easy wagon
route to the Oregon Country.
The
Oregon Trail is is the only major trail in the United States that was first
traveled in a west to east direction.
Oregon -Mormon - California Trail
There
was little national interest in a trail to the West until
Jedediah Smith
crossed South Pass in 1824. Smith is given credit for the effective discovery of
South Pass.
The
number one traveler of the Oregon trail was Ezra Meeker. Meeker went over the
Oregon Trail in 1852. At the age of 76, Meeker, accompanied by two oxen, a
driver and a dog, went from Puyallup, Washington to Washington, D.C.. Meeker
wanted to bring the Nation's attention to the Oregon Trail, which was
being plowed under by civilization.
Ezra Meeker made three more journeys to the
East: another with an ox
team, by an automobile in 1915, and by an airplane in 1924. The "Champion" of
the Oregon Trail died at the age of
ninety-eight.
Oregon Trail Marker on the Continental Divide at South Pass
The
Oregon Trail Monument 1843 -1857 was placed there by Ezra Meeker in 1906.
Marcus
and Narcissa Whitman and Henry and Elisa Spaulding traveled to the
1836 Horse
Creek Rendezvous with wagons. On the
advise of several mountain men, the
heaviest wagon was left at the Horse Creek Rendezvous.
But Dr. Whitman refused to leave the light wagon. At Fort Hall, Doctor Whitman's
driver deserted, and the wagon was transformed into a two-wheeled cart. Reaching Fort Boise, Dr. Spaulding relinquished the idea of taking
the cart over the Blue Mountains. The two-wheeled cart was abandoned at Fort Boise...many
internet sites claim the Whitmans traveled all the way to Washington in a
covered wagon.
Narcissa Whitman and Elisa Spaulding were the first white women to cross
South Pass, attend a mountain man
rendezvous, and travel the Oregon Trail to the Oregon Country.
Narcissa Whitman Eliza Spaulding Marker - South Pass
Oregon Trail pioneers were mostly middle class, successful people.
Eight hundred to a thousand dollars were required for a wagon, oxen, and enough supplies
to live a year.
Of
the men on the Oregon Trail, sixty percent of the family men were farmers.
Around twenty percent of the men were craftsmen and merchants, while physicians, lawyers,
teachers, and other professionals made up about twelve percent.
On
the Oregon Trail, one in every five women were in some stage of pregnancy. Nearly all married woman traveled with small children.
Many
pioneer families had a milk cow tied to the tailgate of the wagon. After milking the
cow, the milk sat until the cream raised to the top. Each morning, the cream was
poured into a churn carried in or on the side of the wagon. As the churn bounced
along over the rough trail, the cream turned to butter.
One
estimate has one of every seventeen travelers (men,
women, children) dying in
route to the Oregon Country (Bailey).
A noted historian, Merrill Mattes used a
conservative figure of
twenty thousand deaths over a twenty year period for the entire two thousand miles of the Oregon Trail.
The
number of deaths on the Oregon Trail (1843-1863) used by Mattes corresponds to a grave every one hundred and sixty-seven yards,
or ten graves per mile.
Between 1849 and 1853,
the greatest killer on the trail was bacterial infection causing a watery
diarrhea...Cholera.
Across Nebraska was the deadliest
area for cholera. Ninety-six percent of all cholera deaths occurred prior to
reaching South Pass. Cholera was first reported in the United States between
1832-1834. St. Louis lost a tenth of its population to this disease, including
my great-great grandfather Mathew Gilby and five of his six children.
Cholera continued to appear during the 1850's, but its appearance
diminished after 1853.
After
cholera, wagon accidents, crossing rivers, and
accidental gun shot wounds accounted for most of the Oregon Trail deaths.
Hundreds of
children and adults drowned trying to cross the Kansas, Platte, North Platte, Green,
Snake, and Columbia rivers. Small creeks accounted for many deaths as well.
South Piney Creek - Big Piney, Wyoming
Despite
Hollywood's "Indians circling the wagons", it is estimated three hundred and fifty to four hundred emigrants were killed
between 1840 and 1860 by
Native Americans. The number
of people killed by Indians is close
to the same number of pioneers dying from drowning and accidental gun shot wounds.
Pioneers
frequently used a "Roadside Telegraph." Messages, on scraps of cloth,
animal skulls, rocks, bark, leaves, etc., were left beside the trail for other wagon trains,
or hopefully, someone would carry a message back East.
From
1841 to 1848, wagons
on the 2,000 mile Oregon Trail averaged about eighty-five miles a week. With one
day a week for repairs and rest, this averaged about fourteen miles per
day. John Unruh, Jr. estimated the average number of days to reach California or Oregon:
1841-1848: California: 157.7 Oregon: 169.1
1849: California: 131.6 Oregon: 129.0
1850: California: 107.9 Oregon: 125.0
1850-60: California: 112.7 Oregon: 128.5
1841-1860: California: 121.0 Oregon: 139.6
From
1840 to 1860, the total number of people traveling the Oregon, California,
and Mormon Trails is estimated at 320,000. If the time frame is expanded to a
twenty-nine year period, it is estimated over 500,000 Oregon and Mormon pioneers and California gold seekers traveled the
trails.
The
glory years of the Oregon Trail and Mormon Trail ended with the completion of the
transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Utah in 1869. The Oregon Trail travel
was greatly diminished after 1869, but it was still occasionally used during the
Civil War and as late as 1880.
Mountain
men who had explored the country in search of beaver often led the wagon trains
over the Oregon Trail. Two of the most famous guides were
Thomas Fitzpatrick and
Moses "Black" Harris.
Conestoga
wagons were too big for the Oregon Trail. Converted farm wagons,
called Prairie Schooners were used with primarily oxen pulling them. The oxen were driven by a
man or woman walking along side.
Prairie Schooner -
Seminoe Post
Some
Indians called the Prairie Schooners, "horsecanoes" or "winged canoes", and the
Oregon Trail as "the Great Medicine Road."
Wagon Jack - Oregon Trail Center Montpelier, Idaho
A
wagon jack was often carried in a wagon train. The above wagon jack
is courtesy of the Oregon California Trail Center in Montpelier, Idaho. The
Oregon Trail Interruptive Center is actually located on the Oregon Trail. The
Oregon Trail Center has an excellent hands-on interruptive program along with a
pioneer and railroad museum.
http://www.oregontrailcenter.org/HistoricalTrails/OregonCaliforniaTrails.htm.
After
a few days on the trail, the travelers settled into a well-defined daily
routine. Wake before sunup, catch and yoke the oxen, cook breakfast (usually warm
johnnycakes and bacon) and hit the trail. There was an hour break for lunch, and
at about 6 p.m., the wagon trains stopped for the night.
It is often stated in
pioneer
journals the wagons were circled to provided a corral for the livestock.
This I doubt. In small trains this may be true, but a wagon train of say one hundred wagons would have at least four-to-six hundred oxen or more, milk cows, draft horses, and saddle horses. A hundred wagons could not make a circle big enough to hold this many animals. Another question is what did the animals eat? The grass inside any circle would be tramped down and covered with several inches of manure in a matter of hours.
In the vast semi-arid areas of the Oregon Trail, animals
had to eat at least ten-to-twelve hours at night for enough strength to pull the
wagons and produce milk.
Oregon Trail - Google Images
Quality
of the grasses was the main reason
oxen were used instead of horses. Oxen can work on a poorer nutritional diet than
horses. There are many journal accounts of a late start in the morning
because the belled oxen could not be found.
Ox Bell
Made
in France, this bell is twelve by six inches. Copied by Mormon blacksmiths,
these bells were often called the Nauvoo bells by Mormon pioneers. Strapped around the neck of oxen, the clanking bell made it easier to find
the oxen when turned loose to feed.
Oxen
are called steers up to three years old, after that the steer was called an ox. A
pair of
oxen weighed up to three thousand pounds.
Journals kept by mountain men, pioneers, and emigrants are often the only
primary source of information, but they are not necessarily factual. Seldom do
writers see the
same event in the same way; two examples are the
Battle of
Pierre's Hole and the
Tonquin disaster. Just as many
writers (and newsmen) of today, the early writers tended to over emphasize the bad and
exciting parts and leave out
the endless days of boredom. This tends to give the
reader, as well as history, a distorted view of the actual happenings.
Many
journals were not kept on a day to day basis, especially mountain man journals.
Pioneer journals that were "added to or brought up to date" are influenced by
other pioneers comments and writings.
Distorted
views are also obtained from oral histories or traditions.
Oral
histories are stories handed down from one generation to the
next...they are stories not fact.
An
ethnologist,
Dr. George Grinnell lived with the Cheyenne
Indians for several different years. Dr. Grinnell
findings showed oral histories were relative accurate for three
generations...after that oral histories were stories; the same is undoubtedly true of
handed-down white oral histories.
Independence,
Missouri
was the major departure point in the early years of the Oregon Trail. A former
slave Hiram Young owned the largest business in Independence: he made wagons and ox
yokes.
The
Oregon Trail followed the south side of the Platte River, whereas, the
Mormon Trail
followed the north side. The two trails joined on the North Platte River.
Chimney
Rock was considered by many as the end of the prairie and the start of the
mountainous part of the Oregon and Mormon trails.
The
prairie was the grasslands from central Canada to Mexico and from
West of the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains. According to Chittenden, plains and prairie are basically
interchangeable terms. Plains was used more as a descriptive term for travel.
Example, pioneers went across the plains to reach Oregon.
Beyond Chimney Rock, the next
Oregon-Mormon Trail landmark was
Scott's Bluff. The bluff was named for
Hiram Scott
whose body was found near the bluff in 1830.
Fort
William (Fort Laramie - 1834) and
Fort Bridger
(1843) had a lasting effect on travel over the Oregon-California and
Mormon trails. Built by mountain men
William Sublette and
Jim Bridger,
these two trading post were the major supply and layover points on the Mormon,
California, and Oregon trails for hundreds of thousands of weary travelers.
A
major confrontation with Native Americans occurred near
Ft. Laramie in 1854. The
arrogance and stupidity of Lt. John Grattan has remained in history as the "Grattan Massacre".
It began when a lame cow wandered into a nearby Sioux village, which the
Indians promptly ate. Lieutenant Grattan with twenty-eight soldiers left Fort Laramie to punish
the Sioux. The Sioux offered a horse for the lame cow, but Grattan didn't even
bother to refuse the offer. He ordered his
men to fire, killing the village chief. Grattan and his men were promptly
“massacred” by several hundred Sioux warriors.
On
a single day in June 1850, more than 2,000 people and 550 wagons passed by
Fort Laramie.
Restored Settler's Store at Fort Laramie
The
abundance of grass and good water next to
Independence Rock made it a welcome
stopping point for every wagon train. The goal was to arrive
at Independence Rock by the 4th of July
in order to beat the winter snows in the Blue Mountains of Oregon.
Some emigrants,
including my
great-great grandfather in 1847, carved their names, dates, or
initials on Independence Rock. In 1860, Sir Richard Burton calculated there were between forty
and fifty thousand names written on Independence Rock.
Independence Rock
Independence
Rock covers twenty-seven acres next to the Sweetwater River. Seven hundred feet
wide, nineteen hundred feet long, and one hundred and thirty six feet high, the
solitary rock is over a mile in circumference.
Ice
Slough was a shallow basin just before South Pass. Ponds
and springs there are covered with a two-to three-foot turf. Ice from the previous winter was
insulated under the thick turf and could be dug out during the hot summer months.
Ice Slough
South
Pass marked the halfway point on the Oregon Trail. Expecting a narrow alpine
pass, emigrants were surprised by the gradual approach leading to a broad,
relatively flat
plain some twenty miles wide.
Continental Divide - South Pass
South
Pass and Bend of the Bear River near
Soda Springs, Idaho provided open passes
through
the Rocky Mountains. These passes allowed a wagon train to go from Independence,
Missouri to the foothills of the Blue and Sierra mountains without going through
a forest of pine trees.
Pacific
Spring was the first dependable water on the Pacific side of the Continental
Divide.
Pacific Spring
After
crossing the Continental Divide at South Pass, the next major stop was
Fort Bridger.
There
were two major cutoffs on the Oregon Trail that bypassed Fort Bridger. The Sublette Cutoff was across desolate
dry land, but it cut forty-six miles, or about three days
travel, off the
journey. The Sublette Cutoff separated from the Oregon Mormon trails at the Parting of the Ways on the west side of
South Pass, and rejoined the Oregon Trail on Bear River, near Cokeville, Wyoming.
The waterless semi-arid land
crossed by Sublette's Cutoff was arguably one of the worst stretch on the Oregon Trail.
The first wagon train to travel over it was led by Caleb Greenwood in 1844.
The
other Oregon Trail cutoff was the
Lander Trail. The trail left the
Oregon Trail at Gilbert's Station on South Pass and rejoined it near
Fort Hall, Idaho.
In 1858,
Frederick Lander, who had surveyed it the year before, and
one hundred and fifteen men constructed the road in less than ninety days at a cost of
sixty-seven thousand eight hundred and seventy-three dollars.
On
the Bend of the Bear River, Steamboat
Springs was a three-foot geyser emitting a high-pitched whistle similar to
steamboats on the Missouri River. Steamboat Springs was the principal feature of a group of
mineral springs collectively known as the Soda Springs. Located on the outskirts
of Soda Springs, Idaho, some of these springs are now covered by the Alexander
Reservoir. One minister proclaimed, "Hell is not more than a mile from this
place."
Fort
Hall built in 1834 by Nathanial Wyeth was owned by the Hudson's Bay Company
(1837-1856) during the major part of the Oregon-California migration.
Since the
Hudson's Bay Company wanted to keep American
trappers
and immigrants out of the Oregon Territory, the use of Fort Hall as a
supply
point for Oregon Trail pioneers has been widely over emphasized.
A few miles off the Oregon Trail, Fort Hall was used by the emigrants as a rest stop and to repair wagons. It is questionable how much Fort Hall was a place where emigrants could re-supply.
Hugh Grant
refused supplies to the
1843 Chiles wagon train led by
Joseph Walker,
until Walker told Grant the wagon train was going to California, not Oregon.
Walker sent
Joseph Chiles and a few men to the Hudson's Bay Fort Boise, but they were refused
supplies there as well. The Fort Boise traders did give them a crude map to get over the
Sierra Mountains to Sutter's Mill.
After Oregon became a United States Territory in
1846, the Hudson's Bay trader Hugh Grant continued to buy furs from Americans,
primarily Peg-leg, Smith. Grant left Fort Hall in 1848.
In
1849, General Persifor F. Smith wrote from Vancouver to authorities in
Washington about abandoning Fort Hall. General Smith wrote...If a post were
established at Ft. Hall to assist emigrants, it would be nearly useless, because
they follow a new route more to the southward...the Hudspeth Cutoff.
Hudson's Bay
Company abandoned Fort Hall in 1856.
The Blue Mountains in Oregon were
about half as high in elevation as South Pass, but they were the hardest
mountain range to cross on the Oregon Trail.
A
series of waterfalls on the Columbia River at the Dalles forced pioneers to
decide whether to build a raft and float down the Columbia River, or after 1846,
use the safer Barlow Toll Road around Mt. Hood.
The
end of the Oregon Trail was at Oregon City, not quite two thousand miles from Independence,
Missouri.
This is an on going article. As I come across items of interest, they will be added. Please put your name and email address after your comments in the form box. Your name will be used, unless you request otherwise, with your comments, but not your email address.
The Oregon Trail article was written by O. Ned Eddins of Afton, Wyoming. Permission is given for material from this site to be used for school research papers.
Citation: Eddins, Ned. (article name) Thefurtrapper.com. Afton, Wyoming. 2002.
Article Links, References, and Responses are listed below.
This site is maintained through the sale of my two historical novels.
There are no banner adds, no pop up adds, or other advertising, except my books -- To keep the site this way, your support is appreciated.
There have been many requests for copies of pictures from the website. The best website pictures, and others from Jackson Hole, Yellowstone, and Star Valley, Wyoming, have been put on a CD. The pictures make beautiful screensavers, or can be used as a slide show in Windows XP. When ordering Mountains of Stone, request the CD and I will send it free with the book. The Winds of Change CD contains different pictures than those on the Mountains of Stone CD. To view a representative sample of the pictures on the CDs, click on...
To email a comment, a question, or a suggestion click on Mountain Man.
To return to the Home Page Article Links click on Mountain Man logo.
The trivia information comes from a wide variety of sources. The main sources are listed below. If I have missed a site, please let me know and I will add it.
Mormon Trail Oregon Mormon Trail Markers Astorians Fur Trappers Oregon Country Mountain Man History Fur Trade Facts David Thompson Lewis and Clark Joseph Walker Fort Bonneville Myth Jedediah Smith
Ball John. Across the Plains to Oregon, 1832. Online Edition. Mtmen.org.
Ghent, W. J. The Early Far West. Longmans, Green and Co. New York, N.Y. 1931.
Gilbert, Bil. Westering Man The Life of Joseph Walker. University of Oklahoma Press. Norman, Oklahoma. 1985.
Gowans, Fred. Rocky Mountain Rendezvous. Perrigrine Smith Books Layton, Utah. 1985.
Gray, William H. A History of Oregon 1792 – 1849. Harris & Holman; New York, New York. 1870.
Leonard, Zenas. Adventures of a Mountain Man. Bison Books. University of Nebraska Press. Lincoln, Nebraska. 1978.
Merrill Mattes, The Great Platte River Road.
John Unruh, Jr. The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60
http://www.americanwest.com/trails/pages/oretrail.htm.
http://www.canadiana.org/hbc/hist/hist10_e.html
http://www.over-land.com/trore.html#general