Essay On Oregon Trail

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The Oregon Trail had a major impact on the United States. The Oregon Trail was a wagon road that stretched halfway across the United States. It stretched across endless prairie, sagebrush, deserts, and mountains. It started as a couple people using it with only a few wagons, but ended up being a much bigger accomplishment. There were many different reasons why people traveled and took this route even during the harsh times.
The Oregon Trail is not much of a road, it is about 2,200 miles of parallel ruts that was caused from so many wagon wheels being on it. The Oregon Trail has had a major impact on North American and has a bunch of history behind it. The Organ trail started in Independence, Missouri. It traveled through Missouri, Kansas, …show more content…
However, the first organized wagon trail started with only about 100 people and as they traveled they got a few more to join them. On May 18, 1843, the Great Migration began. The Great Migration started with about 1,000 settlers. Most of them traveled during this time because they had Rich dreams. Around this time was the Gold Rush and they were inspired by gold and rich farmlands. The first part of the trail was mostly flat through the Great Plains. There wasn't very many instances although crossing rivers was dangerous. At night all the pioneers would park their wagons in a circle so that they would be safe from Indians attacking. If they feared that Indians would attack they would bring all of their animals inside the circle with them to protect them better. After entering the mountains the trail got more difficult than it was at the start. The mountains had a steep slope and rocky terrains that the pioneers risked their lives trying to go and get on the other side. Although through the dangerous route the majority of the pioneers survived and reached Oregon. The Great Migration was the start of a lot of things. In 1844, there was another migration along the route but it had less than 1,000 pioneers. However, in 1845 there were nearly 3,000 pioneers. The migrations became an annual event on the Oregon trail. The trail was heavily traveled until 1884. That was when the Union Pacific constructed a railway along the
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