Thanks to the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804/1806, there were first maps of parts of the route. However, the route used by the expedition over Lolo Pass in the Rocky Mountains was too steep for settlers with baggage and covered wagons. In 1810, John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company initiated an expedition to find a supply route for the Fort Astoria fur trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River. Although the expedition and base were a failure, the Astorians returning in 1811 found a far better route through the Rocky Mountains: the South Pass. Their discovery was not mentioned in the official report, however, because the American Fur Company did not operate in the central Rocky Mountains and did not want to announce the pass to its competitors.
Some expedition reports, for example those of Lieutenant Zebulon Pike (1806) and Major Steven Long (1819), described the Great Plains as unsuitable for settlement and called the area "the great American desert." The Great Plains were considered an uninhabitable desert in part until nearly 1880. At the same time, early missionaries reported euphorically from Oregon beginning in 1818. Missionaries, politicians, and early settlers and businessmen in the West, such as Johann August Sutter and John Marsh promoted the West as very fertile and climatically pleasant. They even described travel to the West as a health-giving cure.
Early settler treks
In February 1824, Crow and Cheyenne Indians showed the South Pass to a trapper party from the Ashley & Henry fur trading company (later the Rocky Mountain Fur Company) led by Jedediah Smith. These immediately recognized the importance and the trail was used regularly from then on by fur hunters and traders. They were joined at times by Methodist and Presbyterian missionaries who traveled across the Rockies to Oregon. In the 1830s, news spread through newspapers that fur trader William Sublette had successfully traveled by wagon to a rendezvous at South Pass and back. Until then, the Rocky Mountains were considered an impassable obstacle for wagons. In 1840, Joel Walker and his family became the first settlers to accompany the fur trade caravan west. The realization that the overland route to Oregon was passable received further impetus from a book by missionary Samuel Parker. In it, Parker described how he made the journey as an aging man in 1835. In 1841, the first group of settlers traveled to Oregon unaccompanied by experienced Mountain Men, with them were Jesuit missionaries led by Pierre-Jean De Smet. Some settlers advanced as far as Fort Vancouver in present-day Washington. Not all emigrants reached their destination. For example, in 1841 about ten percent of the travelers turned back.
On May 16, 1842, the first organized wagon train of 100 started from Elm Grove. The following year 900 settlers reached Oregon, 800 of them settling in the Willamette Valley. The settlers formed a provisional government. This brought the U.S. into conflict with the British, who had previously ruled Oregon through the Hudson's Bay Company. Despite the hostilities, John McLoughlin of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver generously supported the new settlers from 1842 to 1845. The British press ridiculed the intention of American citizens to reach Oregon by way of the Rocky Mountains, or doubted the seriousness of the emigration attempts. The British press maintained this attitude to some extent until about 1844, when emigration was long in progress. In 1846 the Oregon Compromise settled the boundary between the British and the United States in the West. On its basis the Oregon Territory was created two years later on the side of the USA. With the border treaty, the British press lost interest in the emigration of American settlers.
The American press, under the influence of Horace Greeley, was also initially critical of emigration to the West and did not see the need, since there was sufficient fertile land available in the East. Emigrants were criticized for putting their families in unnecessary danger. By the mid-1840s, the mood tilted, and skepticism gave way to euphoria about extending the territory of the United States to the west coast of the continent. Henceforth, emigrants were lauded as heroes and the dangers of the journey were downplayed. The explorer and politician John C. Frémont promoted the South Pass as an easier crossing over the Rockies. U.S. President James K. Polk proposed in 1845 to reward successful pioneers who reached Oregon with a free piece of land. His push failed, however.
Soon enterprising individuals were offering their services along the Oregon Trail. In 1843, the first commercially operated ferry was launched on the Kansas River. Because of the high price, however, most emigrants built their own ferries. In Oregon and California, many early settlers helped newcomers, provided medical care, offered shelter, met them with provisions, and patrolled for hostile Indians. Mission stations were also important to immigrants who arrived late in the year and were desperate for a place to spend the winter. In California, John Sutter, with his Fort Sutter, particularly excelled in generously assisting immigrants in need.
In the winter of 1846, one of the greatest disasters in the history of the Oregon Trail occurred: About 90 emigrants under the leadership of George Donner were surprised by early snowfall on their way to California at Donner Pass. About half of the Donner party died and many of the rest survived only thanks to cannibalism. This event was mostly kept quiet in the press, but from this point on the euphoric-romantic reporting gradually changed to a more realistic one and newspapers published useful information about the route as well as letters from settlers in Oregon.
Many hundreds of thousands of emigrants to Oregon and California followed, especially after the discovery of gold in California in 1848. During this time, cholera spread across the prairies. The increasing number of emigrants put more and more pressure on the Indian tribes in the West and tensions between emigrants and Indians increased. Presumably introduced measles, which caused many deaths among the Cayuse and Umatilla Indians, turned them against the white settlers. In 1847, Cayuse and Umatilla Indians perpetrated the Whitman Massacre of missionary Marcus Whitman, his family, and 15 other settlers. The ensuing Cayuse War necessitated military involvement in the Pacific Northwest. The war ended in 1855 with the defeat of the Indian tribes involved and their relocation to Indian reservations.
Expansion and improvement of the trail
The route was steadily improved, shortened and the infrastructure along the route expanded both by the government and private initiative. In 1845, Colonel Stephen W. Kearny had led a U.S. Army troop to South Pass and back east for the first time. The following year, the U.S. Parliament gave money to establish Army posts along the Oregon Trail. Stephen W. Kearny had a first station built on the west bank of the Missouri River, Fort Kearny. Construction of the fort chain was delayed due to the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, and Fort Kearny was also temporarily abandoned.
In 1849, the approximately 600 men of the 3rd U.S. Cavalry Regiment rode the entire length of the Oregon Trail, establishing military posts along the way. After Fort Kearny, Fort Laramie and Fort Hall were the next military posts, with the army buying both forts from private traders and converting them into military bases. Fort Hall was abandoned again the next spring due to difficulty in resupply. In May 1850, Camp Drum was established. During the 1850s, the 3rd U.S. Cavalry Regiment built more army posts in areas with increased potential for conflict with Indians. For Oregon Trail travelers, the military posts provided not only shelter but also opportunities to obtain provisions and spare parts. Often, desperate emigrants even received basic necessities free of charge at army posts. In the 1850s, up to 90 percent of U.S. Army troops were stationed at the 79 army posts west of the Mississippi.
The U.S. government also tried to pacify the trail through negotiations with Indian tribes. In 1848, it paid $2,000 for 600 mi². In 1851, it invited various tribes to a meeting at Fort Laramie. Over 10,000 Indians attended. At this meeting, the Treaty of Fort Laramie defined the boundaries and gave the US permission to build forts and roads. In exchange, the Indians were promised $50,000 worth of trade goods annually for 50 years. However, not all groups of the tribes involved took part in the meeting; they did not feel bound by the agreements.
Around 1850, more and more settlers settled along the way and offered their services. Privately operated ferries, bridges, smithies, trading posts and the like were established. Initially, the trading posts often consisted only of simple tents. As early as 1843, Jim Bridger and Louis Vasquez had established Fort Bridger, a private trading post on the Oregon Trail southwest of South Pass. In many cases, workshops settled immediately adjacent to ferry operations. Travelers especially made frequent use of the services of blacksmiths. In the area west of South Pass, the Mormons especially participated in the business activities. In 1849, it cost five dollars to pass a wagon on one of their ferries, and the revenue from this ferry was an estimated $6500 to $10,000 for the entire season. To compete with the ferries, entrepreneurs increasingly built bridges, but these required large initial investments. For example, in 1853, a new bridge was built over the North Platte River at a cost of $14,000 to $16,000. In its first year of operation, however, the bridge brought in $40,000. The difference in prices in the East and West stimulated the business of merchants. Cattle purchased in Missouri, for example, could be sold in California at several times the purchase price. It was worthwhile for cattle traders to drive sheep, steers, cows, and horses westward, even if they faced a loss of 10 to 20 percent along the way. This activity peaked between 1852 and 1854, and for 1853 the number of sheep and cattle driven west overland is estimated at 300,000.
In August 1850, a state monthly letter post service began between Independence and Salt Lake City, and in 1851 an intermediate station was established at Fort Laramie. In the same year, another letter post service was established between Salt Lake City and Sacramento. In many cases the letters arrived late and in some cases not at all. In 1858, the delivery interval between Independence and Salt Lake City was increased to one week. In 1860, private competition emerged in the form of the Pony Express. Just one year later, letter couriers lost importance due to the new telegraph network.
The California Gold Rush changed the composition of emigrant groups. Previously, emigrant families were the main group on the move; with the gold rush, it was primarily men. During the California Gold Rush, the first newspapers in the West sprang up in California and Oregon, demanding increasingly insistent support and military protection of the Oregon Trail from the U.S. government. The early 1850s were climatically difficult, so many emigrants had to leave all possessions behind along the way and reached their destination only with extreme effort on foot. Many of the emigrants headed for California changed their route to Oregon. The superintendents of Washington and Oregon were interested in peace with the Indians. For example, in 1856, groups of the Shoshone received gifts worth $4,500.
In 1854, a cow belonging to an Oregon Trail traveler that strayed to a Lakota Indian camp and was killed there led to the Grattan Massacre. The skirmish was the first armed confrontation between the Lakota and the US Army.
In 1857, Mormon settlers left the Carson River Valley and moved northeast, establishing Salt Lake City and nearly 400 other settlements.
In 1860, Frederick Lander had large reservoirs built at Rabbit Hole Springs and Antelope Springs.
The end of use
Around 1850, ideas for alternative forms of travel emerged, such as travel by balloon, stagecoach or wagons supported by wind sails. Businessmen implemented the idea of a passenger train pulled by draught animals from 1849 onwards. Some of these trains reached much higher speeds. In 1860, one such train made the trip from St. Joseph to Salt Lake City in 19 days. However, traveling by train cost several hundred dollars more than traveling by covered wagon. In addition, passengers could only carry a limited weight of luggage.
Toward the middle of the 1850s, the first calls for a railroad across the American continent emerged. In the East, newspapers in the 1850s reported on the Oregon Trail in a noticeably more objective and less romanticizing or dramatizing way than before. Emigrants were therefore usually better prepared for the journey.
The route was still in use during the American Civil War. The trail became less important when the transcontinental railroad opened in 1869. Its route ran further south.
