Oregon Trail
historic migration route spanning Independence, MO–Oregon City, OR / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
People traveled on the Oregon Trail in wagons in order to settle new parts of the United States of America during the 19th century. The Oregon Trail started in Missouri near the area where Kansas City, Missouri is today and ended in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. The Trail was about 2,170 miles (3,500 km) long, and could take up to six months to travel.[1]
Operation | |
---|---|
Created by | Fur traders in the 1830s |
Years used | 1841-1880s[1] |
Location | Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon |
Length | 2,170 miles (3,500 kilometres)[1] |
Travelers | |
Total number | 400,000 (estimated)[1] |
Deaths | 16,000[2] – 40,000[3] |
Now a National Historic Trail of the National Park Service | |
|
People went to Oregon for many reasons. Some people wanted land. Some thought Oregon would be a better place to live. Most of them went because they wanted a new life.[1]
The Oregon Trail was first traveled around 1841. Once a railroad was built across the United States in 1869, people could take trains to the western United States, so fewer people began to travel west in wagons. By that time, about 400,000 people had crossed the Oregon Trail in wagons. However, some people kept traveling the Trail until the 1880s.[1]