"Because nine-tenths of the travelers who used the central-Wyoming route were headed for California or Utah rather than Oregon, it seems appropriate to use the term Oregon-California-Utah Trail instead of Oregon Trail." (Larson, 1965)
Other Names:
Emigrant Trail, Great Medicine Road, Oregon-California Trail
The Oregon Trail, over which more than 300,000 people traveled going into the far west, from 1843 until 1869, is one of the most historic trails in the United States. It was over this trail that Brigham Young led the Mormons. In the late 1840's it was used by thousands headed for the gold fields of California, and it may be characterized as the Path of the Empire, for by it came the pioneers who saved Washington, Oregon, Idaho and parts of Wyoming and Montana to the American Union. The trail from Independence to the Oregon country was two thousand miles in length. (WPA)
