Introduction Imagine leaving your home saying good-bye to your friends getting in a covered wagon with your family and riding far away to a place you’ve never seen People called pioneers did that in the 1800s Pioneers were people who wished to live in the western United States There they could get land to start farms Going west pioneers had to cross large fields called plains and go over the Rocky Mountains Many pioneers followed the Oregon Trail a 2,200-mile 3,500-kilometer route from the Midwest to Oregon Along the way they faced many dangers Life As a Pioneer on the Oregon Trail
Families traveled across the plains to a new home in Oregon
This map shows the paths of the Oregon Trail California Oregon Neveda Utah Washington idaho Montana Wyoming Canada North Dakota South Dakota Nebraska Colorado kansas iowa Missouri old Oregon Trail Legend of Trails
Chapter 1 History of the Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail started as separate trails used by Native Americans In the early 1800s fur traders used the trails to create one path This path joined places where traders could sell animal furs Christians sent people along the trail in the 1830s to get the Native Americans to believe in Christianity In the early 1840s newspapers began to publish stories of how wonderful Oregon was People in eastern cities began to head west Some wanted land to farm Others were runaway slaves They would be free if they could get to Oregon The first group of pioneers to travel the Oregon Trail left Independence Missouri in 1841 They followed the fur traders route They took an easy History of the Oregon Trail
