Starting in the 1830s and continuing until after the Civil War, about 300,000 emigrants slogged along a well-beaten trail from Missouri to the fertile valleys of Oregon.
A week ago Beverly and I followed a portion of the Oregon Trail, from Independence, Mo., to Scottsbluff, Neb. — in the comfort of an air-conditioned automobile.
While we didn’t experience the discomfort of those early pioneers — we spent nights in motels that served a hot breakfast each morning — we did venture onto dirt roads several times to see features of the trail, and did our own slogging along deep-rutted wagon tracks at several sites.
Our journey started with a look at swales created by hundreds of covered wagons, one after another creeping up a hillside at the Independence jumping-off point, and continued through northeast Kansas, including a stop at Alcove Spring, near Blue Rapids, where the emigrants found fresh water.
In Nebraska, the trail wove its way along and over the Platte River, before we came to the most visually exciting aspects of the trail, the monument rocks in the western reaches of the state.
Jailhouse, Courthouse and Chimney rocks were amazing and easily recognizable as guiding landmarks, but it was the sandstone bluffs near Scottsbluff that we found most interesting. They are quite a sight early in the day, which we soaked up one morning.
Along the trail, which covers 2,000 miles by the time it arrives in Oregon, are numerous historical markers — those pull-off stops with large signs that tell what happened there in the taming and occupying of the West.
Our trip was a priceless lesson in early American history.
The trail was blazed by fur trappers and traders not long after the United States became a nation, and also was followed by Mormons, people bound for California — particularly after gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1849 — and the Pony Express, during its 18-month existence before the telegraph took over relaying news from east to west.
Hollywood has glamorized western expansion, which in fact deviates far from “the way it was.” Those who left Missouri in covered wagons suffered heat and cold, had to deal with all sorts of mechanical problems and a multitude of setbacks arising from hostile terrain. About 75,000 of those who wanted to homestead in Oregon died along the way.
At the very least the journey was an ordeal, a fact that left us with a far greater appreciation of what it took to settle the West.
— Bob Johnson
On the trail to yesteryear
