Radiocarbon tests of carbonized plant remains where artifacts were unearthed indicate that the sediments containing these artifacts are at least 50,000 years old, meaning that humans inhabited North American long before the last ice age (more than 20,000-years ago). (Science Daily)
From at least 10,000 years ago to approximately 1100, the North American Plains were very sparsely populated by humans. Typical of hunting and gathering cultures worldwide, Plains residents lived in small family-based groups, usually of no more than a few dozen individuals, and foraged widely over the landscape.
By approximately the year 850, some residents of the central Plains had shifted from foraging to farming for a significant portion of their subsistence and were living in settlements comprising a number of large earth-berm homes.
As early as 1100, and no later than about 1250, most Plains residents had made this shift and were living in substantial villages and hamlets along the Missouri River and its tributaries. (Britannica)
Because of the limitations inherent in using only dogs and people to carry loads, Plains peoples did not generally engage in extensive travel before the horse. However, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado’s expedition in 1541 reported encounters with fully nomadic buffalo-hunting tribes who had only dogs for transport.
By the mid-18th century horses had arrived, coming from the Southwest via trade with the Spanish and the expansion of herds of escaped animals. Guns were also entering the Plains, via the fur trade. (Britannica)
The Spanish were among the first Europeans to explore the New World and the first to settle in what is now the United States. European nations (England, France and Spain) came to the Americas to increase their wealth and broaden their influence over world affairs.
By 1750, some 80 per cent of the North American continent was controlled or influenced by France or Spain. Their presence was a source of tension and paranoia among those in the 13 British colonies, who feared encirclement, invasion and the influence of Catholicism.
As the United States spread across the Appalachians, the Mississippi River became an increasingly important conduit for America’s West (which at that time referred to the land between the Appalachians and the Mississippi).
Since 1762, Spain had claimed the territory of Louisiana, which included 828,000-square miles. The territory made up all or part of fifteen modern US states between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.
Following the American Revolutionary War, France acquired Louisiana from Spain in 1800 and took possession in 1802; the French planned expansion of their empire in the New World.
The fledgling United States saw Louisiana as an important trade/transportation area and feared that the French would seek to dominate the Mississippi River and access to the Gulf of Mexico.
On January 18, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson sent a secret message to Congress asking for $2,500 to send an officer and a dozen soldiers to explore the Missouri River, make diplomatic contact with Indians, expand the American fur trade, and locate the Northwest Passage (the much-sought-after hypothetical northwestern water route to the Pacific Ocean).
The US was negotiating to acquire New Orleans and West Florida for $10-million. Instead, Napoleon decided to give up his plans for Louisiana and offered the entire territory to the US. (State Department)
The proposed trip took on added significance on May 2, when the United States agreed to the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson asked his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead the expedition. As his co-commander he selected William Clark, who had been his military superior during the government’s battles with the Northwest Indian Federation in the early 1790s.
Over the duration of the trip, from May 14, 1804, to September 23, 1806, from St. Louis, Missouri, to the Pacific Ocean and back, the Corps of Discovery, as the expedition company was called, traveled nearly 8,000 miles. (Britannica)
American Indians had traversed this country for many years, but for European Americans it was unknown territory. Lewis and Clark’s expedition was part of a US Government plan to open Oregon Country to settlement. However, the hazardous route blazed by Lewis and Clark was not feasible for families traveling by wagon. An easier trail was needed.
Robert Stuart of the Astorians (a group of fur traders who established Fort Astoria on the Columbia River in western Oregon) became the first white man to use what later became known as the Oregon Trail. Stuart’s 2,000-mile journey from Fort Astoria to St. Louis in 1810 took 10 months to complete; still, it was a much less rugged trail than Lewis and Clark’s route. (NPS)
The Oregon Trail is an overland trail between Independence, Missouri, and Oregon City, near present-day Portland, Oregon, in the Willamette River valley. It was about 2,000-miles long and crossed through the States of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington
It was one of the two main emigrant routes to the American West in the 19th century (the other being the southerly Santa Fe Trail from Independence to Santa Fe (now in New Mexico)).
It wasn’t until 1836 that the first wagons were used on the trek from Missouri to Oregon. A missionary party headed by Marcus and Narcissa Whitman set out to reach the Willamette Valley. Though the Whitmans were forced to abandon their wagons 200 miles short of Oregon, they proved that families could go west by wheeled travel.
In the spring of 1843, a wagon train of nearly 1,000 people organized at Independence, Missouri with plans to reach Oregon Country. Amidst an overwhelming chorus of naysayers who doubted their success, the so-called “Great Migration” made it safely to Oregon. (NPS)
Interest in the East for the Oregon country had begun to grow. By 1846, thousands of emigrants who were drawn west by cheap land, patriotism or the promise of a better life found their way to Oregon Country.
With so many Americans settling the region, it became obvious to the British that Oregon was no longer theirs. They ceded Oregon Country to the United States that year. (NPS)
Crucial to the success and well-being of travelers on the trail were the many forts and other settlements that sprang up along the route. (Britannica) The forts were manned by troops of cavalry who were there to protect the emigrants traveling west and to also provide supplies for the wagon trains. (NPS)
Fort Laramie grew to become the largest and most important military post on the Northern Plains. It served emigrants as post office, resupply point and protection on the trail. Fort Laramie is now a NPS National Historic Site. (NPS)
As a result of the 1849 Gold Rush, the 1847 Mormon exodus to Utah and the thousands who moved west on the Oregon Trail starting in the 1840s, the need for a fast mail service beyond the Rocky Mountains became obvious.
The Pony Express, although it lasted only about 19-months (April 1860 and November 1861), generally followed the Oregon Trail and used some of the Forts as part of the horseback relay mail service. (NPS) There were approximately 190 relay stations located approximately 15 miles apart. (U of Nebraska)
Likewise, some of the forts served as telegraph stations and the forts protected the stations and helped to repair the telegraph lines. (The telegraph effectively eliminated the need for the Pony Express.)
The trail had several break-offs that were used by the Mormon pioneers, the California Gold Rush miners and many people who found what they were looking for or simply broke down along the way and decided to homestead the land they ended up on. (Post Register)
The Overland Trail and Stagecoach Line was an alternate wagon route off the Oregon Trail. Pioneers crossed this area as they headed westward in the late 1800s. (Laramie)
Possibly a half million traversed the Oregon Trail, covering an average of 15 to 20-miles per day; most completed their journeys in four to five months. (Britannica)
Settlers who traveled the Oregon Trail spent roughly $800 to $1200 to be properly outfitted. Many of the pioneers raised their capital by selling their farms and possessions.
Along the way they found inflated prices for scarce commodities at trading posts and ferries. Once arriving in Oregon, there were scarce supplies available for purchase, requiring ability to work in exchange for goods and services (than cash for purchasing). (BLM)
Overwhelmingly, the journey was made by wagons drawn by teams of draft animals. Some people did not have wagons and rode horseback, while others went west with handcarts, animal carts, or even the occasional carriage. (Britannica)
It is estimated that as many as 1 in 10 emigrants died on the trail – between 20,000 and 30,000 people (an average of ten graves per mile). The majority of deaths occurred because of diseases caused by poor sanitation. Cholera and typhoid fever were the biggest killers on the trail.
Another major cause of death was falling off a wagon and getting run over. This was not just the case for children; many adults also died from this type of accident.
Other deaths on the trail are recorded in dairies as: stampeding livestock, attack by emigrants on other emigrants, lightning, gunpowder explosion, drowning at river crossings and suicide. (BLM)
Most Native Americans tolerated wagon trains passing through their territories. Many pioneers would not have made it if it had not been for trading with the tribes along the trail.
There were conflicts between Native Americans and emigrants along the trail, but, when compared to the number of people traveling the Oregon Trail, deaths by Indians attacks were very rare. (BLM)
The completion of the first transcontinental railroad at Promontory, Utah, in 1869 marked the beginning of the end for the great overland migration routes to the West. (Britannica)
