{"id":62,"date":"2020-10-27T14:17:35","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T14:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dlscott\/?page_id=62"},"modified":"2026-06-12T09:17:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T13:17:34","slug":"oregon-trail","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dlscott\/oregon-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Ultimate Road Trip:Following the Oregon Trail<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

During\u00a0summer 2010 we followed the Oregon Trail from its origin at\u00a0Courthouse Square\u00a0in\u00a0Independence,\u00a0Missouri, to its end in present-day\u00a0Oregon City,\u00a0Oregon.\u00a0 Along the way we walked along ruts and swales scored by the pioneers along with their wagons and animals, camped nearby sites utilized over 150 years ago by the emigrants, visited numerous museums and interpretive centers, and gazed in wonderment at the beautiful but demanding terrain pioneers were required to navigate during their long journey west. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pioneers\u00a0required from four to six months to complete the trail’s 2,100 miles from\u00a0Independence\u00a0to present-day\u00a0Oregon.\u00a0 Both distance and travel time decreased over time as shortcuts were discovered and bridges and ferries were constructed. In comparison, we drove approximately 2,600 miles in three weeks while tracing the pioneers’ journey.\u00a0 Our trip covered more miles because significant portions of the historic trail are on private land and not paralleled by present-day roads. For example, in\u00a0Kansas\u00a0and southeastern\u00a0Nebraska\u00a0where wagon trains cut diagonally northwest to reach the south bank of the\u00a0Platte River, today’s drivers must zig and zag along county and state roads. We took a tiny fraction of the supplies carried by pioneer families that typically packed 600 pounds of flour, 400 pounds of bacon, 100 pounds of sugar, 60 pounds of coffee, and 200 pounds of lard.\u00a0 We also weren’t burdened with heavy and bulky personal possessions such as trunks, dressers, or family heirlooms.\u00a0 In addition, we didn’t have the added complication of caring for children and animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Not\u00a0all wagon trains heading west set out from\u00a0Independence, Missouri, just as not all pioneers completing the journey put down roots in\u00a0Oregon City.\u00a0 By the mid-1840s numerous wagon trains headed for Oregon were departing from St. Joe, Missouri, a river town 60 miles north of Independence. Long wait times for crowded ferries transporting families and their gear across the\u00a0Missouri\u00a0caused many pioneers to continue moving north\u00a0where delays for gaining ferry space were shorter.\u00a0 Pioneers knew an early start meant an earlier arrival in\u00a0Oregon, thus giving them a better chance of locating superior land to homestead.\u00a0 Following the 1848 discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in\u00a0Coloma,\u00a0California, pioneers, mostly gold seekers rather than families wanting to homestead, found it convenient to cross the Missouri River at\u00a0St. Joseph,\u00a0Missouri. Mormons, who began traveling west in 1846, mostly crossed even further north at\u00a0Council Bluffs,\u00a0Iowa.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We have taken many extended trips throughout the\u00a0United States but discovered three\u00a0weeks spent following the\u00a0Oregon Trail\u00a0was near the top in terms of enjoyment and education. Walking along ruts cut by wagon trains on their way to settling the West 150 years ago is an awesome experience. We enjoyed the 2010 trip so much we repeated it seven years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oregon National Historic Trail interactive map from Missouri to Oregon<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ultimate Road Trip:Following the Oregon Trail During\u00a0summer 2010 we followed the Oregon Trail from its origin at\u00a0Courthouse Square\u00a0in\u00a0Independence,\u00a0Missouri, to its end in present-day\u00a0Oregon City,\u00a0Oregon.\u00a0 Along the way we walked along ruts and swales scored by the pioneers along with their wagons … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":599,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-62","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dlscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dlscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dlscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dlscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/599"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dlscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dlscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1105,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dlscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/62\/revisions\/1105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/dlscott\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}