OREGON TRAIL 1843

HARRISON 'S HISTORY LESSON

MAY 22, 1842

OREGON TRAIL

175 years ago, today, May 22, 1843, a major wagon train to the northwest departed from Elm Grove, on the Mississippi River in Missouri , on what was called the

Oregon Trail. Some 1000 men, women and children, started their horse drawn wagons , 100 of them, to be followed by a herd of 5,000 ox and cattle. The Rev. Doctor Elijah White, a Presbyterian Missionary, who had made the trip a year ago, served as guide. The trip took

about five months.

The trip was 2000 miles or more, following a fur traders trail, known as the Santa Fee, which took them west, 40 miles, to the Platte River which it followed to Fort Laramie,

Wyoming , then on through the Rocky Mountains via Easy South Pass to the basin of the Colorado, then then southwest to Fort Bridger, northwest across a divide to Fort Hall at Snake River, on to Fort Boise to take on supplies for the difficult trip over the Blue Mountains into Oregon.

The United States did not hold sovereignty in 1942, not until 1846. There were fur trappers and traders, missionary groups living in the region for decades. Word of mouth proclaimed the agricultural potential and American farmers got the word.

In 1841 a small band of 70 pioneers intending to farm left Independence, Missouri, took he fur traders trail, hence the Oregon Trail. In 1842 a larger group of 100 made the trip.

In 1843, the sudden severe depression in America's midwest , along with the propaganda from fur traders, missionaries and the government extolling land virtues, the farmers of Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee, joined the 1000 who hoped to find a better life in the supposed paradise of Oregon.

The first section of the trail ran through the flat country of the Great Plains, with few

obstacles, river crossing was a risk and danger to the wagons, the danger of Indian attacks

was small but a genuine risk. To counter the Indian attacks, the wagon trains would circle

to make a stockade to protect the livestock. Plains Indian tribes valued horses but ignored

cattle and oxen.

Many of the new pioneers thought Indians were the greatest threat but learned that a host of mundane causes, accidental firearm discharges, falling from the horses or oxen, river crossing drownings, and unattended diseases were greater obstacles . Through the mountains

the trail was more dangerous, steep ascents and descents caused risk of overturned or

runaway wagons.

Yet, many of the pioneers survived to reach the fertile well watered lands of western

Oregon. 1844 saw a smaller migration but in 1845 it raised to over 3000 and was a annual

event and the large wagon trains gave way to smaller trains, sometimes only one or two

families.

In 1884 the Union Pacific Railroad built its railroad along the Oregon Trail route,

which was abandoned in 1870's .

Abstracr: Today In History, www.history.com/thisdayinhistroy May 22, 2018 Harrison H.