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| WESTERN EXPANSION (West of the Mississippi) |
| Index: 1 Oregon Trail 2 California Trail 3 Donner Trail 4 Santa Fe Trail 5 Old Spanish Trail 6 Gila River Trail 7 Lewis & Clar Trail 8 Mormon Trail A Nauvoo B St. Louis C Winter Quarters D Chimney Rock E Fort Laramie F Devils Gate / Sweet River area G Fort Bridger H Salt Lake City I Astoria / Fort Clatsop |
| Trails West, J. Martinson (c) 9/2003 |
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| Left: Wagon ruts left by travelers of the California/Mormon/Oregon Trail. Guernsey State Park, Wyoming. (c) John Martinson, 1988. |
| * The Oregon Trail can be traced to 1812, when Robert Stuart on his return trip east left what would become the Oregon Territory. Stuart and his party found South Pass, which enabled them to transverse the Continental Divide. The Bidwell-Bartleson party was the first wagon train across the Oregon Trail, though most of the party split-off and went south to California. The trail officially starts in the Westport-Independence, Missouri area, and is 2,170 miles (3,495 km) long. The trail passes through Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and ended in Oregon City, Oregon. From 1850-1852 an estimate 65,000 to 70,000 emigrants traveled west on the Oregon Trail. * The Lewis and Clark Historic Trail travels 3,700 (5,960 km) through Illinois, Missouri, Kanas, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. The Corps of Discovery departed from St. Charles, Missouri on May 21, 1804. See Lewis and Clark. For a detailed map of their travel in Idaho click on http://www.lewisandclarkidaho.org/poi.html. * The Santa Fe National Historic Trail travels 1,203 miles (1,937 km) between Old Franklin, Missouri and Santa Fe and New Mexico. * The Mormon Trail. (See Mormon Trail). The historic trail traveled through Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Wyoming and ends in Salt Lake City, Utah. Some pioneers may have continued after arriving in the Utah area and followed the California or Oregon Trails to other distanations. |
| This Webpage was made in the USA |
| NOTES: o Routes are not to scale and provide only approximate areas the various routes traveled. West of the Mississippi is the area of western expansion. o In most cases, the Mormon Trail stayed just north of the Oregon Trail to Fort Bridger, where the Mormon Trail splits to the southwest and followed the Donner Trail to the Salt Lake Valley. o St. Louis and Independence was the basic starting point for many of the trails. o The Mormon Trail gathering place was at Winter Quarters (Nebraska), but for many Latter-day Saints (Mormons) the trail began when they left their homes in eastern United States or Europe. o Instead of following the land route or trails, some pioneers took a sea route around to the west coast. o The Lewis & Clark route followed the Mississippi (left in red) then forked northwest following the Missouri River. When they reached the Walla Walla Valley (present day Washington State), they again used a river route following the Snake and Columbia River down to Astoria (Oregon). For a detailed map of the Corps route in Idhao see: http://See http://lewisandclarkeducationacenter.com/ |
| By 1890, America saw the closing of the Western frontier and the Trails West. |
| Even before Lewis & Clark were back in St. Louis, explorers, trappers and traders were heading west. Lewis and Clark's discoveries was instrumental in establishing the American West. Picture right: "Lewis and Clark at Three Forks," by E. S. Paxson, Mural at Montana State Capitol, 1912. Photograph by Don Beatty, 10, 1999. Courtesy of the Montana Historical Society |
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