Following the Oregon Trail - part II
June 21 - July 1, 2013

Last year we followed the Oregon Trail from the Wyoming - Idaho border to its end in Oregon City, OR. This year we decided to follow the trail from its start in Independence, MO to where we picked it up last year. My (Gil's) great grandmother traveled to California by wagon train in 1850, so we have a personal interest in this part of American history.

Historians estimate that between 200,000 and 350,000 (some writers claim as many as 500,000) people traveled by wagon train on the Oregon and California trails between 1841 and the late 1860s, when the competion of the transcontinental railroad made wagon trains obsolete. The Oregon trail left from Independence, MO, traveled northwest to the Platte River in Nebraska, followed the Platte into Wyoming, skirted to the north of the Laramie range, and crossed the continental divide at South Pass. It then headed for the Snake River in Idaho, followed the Snake to Oregon. The Oregon Trail  headed over the Blue Mountains in eastern Oregon to the Columbia. Some of the emigrants then headed down the Columbia to their intended destination in the Williamette valley. Other emigrants headed over the Cascades to the Williamette valley. Emigrants heading for California followed the same trail to south central Idaho, where the California trail turned south into Nevada and crossed the Sierra Nevada range into the Sacarmento valley.

The Oregon trail is about 2,000 miles long and required 4 to 6 months to make the trip. People left Independence in late April or early May after the trails had dried out from the spring thaw and the grass had time to green up.  The goal was to get to get across the Sierras, if going to California, or the Blue Mountains in Oregon before heavy snow closed the routes for the winter.


An approximate map of the Oregon/California, and Santa Fe trails









This sign is seen along the route. Sometimes it marks the route to drive for those following the trails by car, and sometimes it marks where the trail crosses the highway, as is the case here.


The following links take you to the blow-by-blow account of our trip following the Oregon trail:
Missouri - Kansas portion
Nebraska portion
Across Wyoming to the Continental Divide
From South Pass to Fort Bridger

To follow the rest of our trip this summer go to Summer 2013