What are the facts about the Oregon Trail?
Basic Facts About the Oregon Trail National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center | 541-523-1843 | oregontrail.blm.gov The Oregon Trail was a wagon road stretching 2170 miles from Missouri to Oregon’s Willamette Valley. It was not a road in any modern sense, only parallel ruts leading across endless prairie, sagebrush desert, and mountains.
When was the south alternate of the Oregon Trail created?
Starting in about 1848 the South Alternate of Oregon Trail (also called the Snake River Cutoff) was developed as a spur off the main trail. It bypassed the Three Island Crossing and continued traveling down the south side of the Snake River.
Where did the Oregon Trail cross the Kansas River?
After crossing Mount Oread at Lawrence, the trail crossed the Kansas River by ferry or boats near Topeka, and crossed the Wakarusa and Vermillion rivers by ferries. After the Vermillion River the trail angles northwest to Nebraska paralleling the Little Blue River until reaching the south side of the Platte River.
How to play the game the Oregon Trail?
Gameplay 1 Departure to Independence, Missouri. Independence, Missouri is the starting point of the trail. 2 The Trail. During the course of the Oregon trail game, travelers will face many obstacles. 3 Arrival to Oregon. 4 Game Controls of the Oregon Trail Game.
Where are the famous places on the Oregon Trail?
At Soda Springs (in what is now southwest Idaho) one contingent split off for Oregon. In his Journal, Bidwell described the famous landmarks that would impress almost all Oregon Trail travelers—Courthouse Rock, Chimney Rock, Scotts Bluff, Fort Laramie and Independence Rock.
Where was the re-supply point for the Oregon Trail?
Fort Vancouver was the main re-supply point for nearly all Oregon trail travelers until U.S. towns could be established. The HBC established Fort Colvile in 1825 on the Columbia River near Kettle Falls as a good site to collect furs and control the upper Columbia River fur trade.
When did people stop using the Oregon Trail?
The many offshoots of the trail and the main trail itself were used by an estimated 350,000 settlers from the 1830s through 1869. When the first railroad was completed, allowing faster and more convenient travel, use of the trail quickly declined.
What was the disease that killed people on the Oregon Trail?
Characterized by high fevers and red spots on the abdomen, this illness—officially called Salmonella Typhi—killed about 10 to 20 percent of those who contracted it on the trail, according to Historic Oregon City.
What was the number one killer on the Oregon Trail?
The number one killer on the Oregon Trail, by a wide margin, was disease and serious illnesses, which caused the deaths of nine out of ten pioneers who contracted them.
Who was the first person on the Oregon Trail?
Fur trader William Sublette made one of the first widely reported wagon trips from South Pass to St. Louis in 1830, and missionaries trekked over western sections of the future Oregon Trail several years later on their way to the Columbia and Willamette Valleys.