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Basic Facts About the Oregon Trail

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. From the 1840s through the 1880s, thousands trekked westward, carrying only a few belonging and supplies for the journey, and settling on the western frontier, forever changing the American West.

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History Bits and Westward Quotes

During eight decades in the 1800s the Oregon Trail served as a natural corridor as the United States grew from the eastern half of the continent toward the west coast. The Oregon Trail ran approximately 2,000 miles west from Missouri toward the Rocky Mountains and ended in Oregon's Willamette Valley. The California Trail branched off in southern Idaho and brought miners to the gold fields of Sierra Nevada. The Mormon Trail paralleled much of the Oregon Trail, connecting Council Bluffs to Salt Lake City.

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Wagons on the Oregon Trail

The wagon train was moveable community for four to six months along the trail. Each evening, the wagon encampment typically grouped into a circle, forming a temporary corral. Around the circle, tents and bedrolls provided the shelter for exhausted pioneers. A few guards kept an eye on the grazing livestock and watched for signs of trouble from wild animals or potential thieves. At sunrise, four o'clock or so, the guards called out or fired their rifles to wake the camp and start another day on the long and dusty trail.

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Map of the Oregon Trail

To print this map, please set your printer to either "Letter Landscape" or "Legal Landscape." The PDF file is about 6" x 13.5"; however, it will print clearly on Letter Landscape as well.

National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center Flickr Album