Oregon Trail
Westward wagon path
The Oregon Trail was a 2,170-mile overland route from Missouri to Oregon, used by hundreds of thousands of American settlers in the mid-1800s.
The name now evokes the 1971 educational computer game where players guide a wagon party westward, managing supplies while risking dysentery, snakebites, and river crossings: You have died of dysentery became a cultural touchstone.
Bloody intestinal infection
- choleraBacterial disease causing fatal dehydration
- typhoidSalmonella-caused systemic infection
- starvationExtreme nutritional deprivation
- exhaustionState of utter depletion
scurvy · frostbite · dehydration · malnutrition · snakebite · drowning · accidents · fever
Pursuing wild game
- wagonWheeled hauling vehicle
- oxenCastrated male cattle
- rationsControlled food portions
- fordingCrossing water shallows
caulking · floating · tombstones · banker · carpenter · farmer · meager · grueling
Organized exploratory journey
- journeyTravel from place to place
- trekArduous overland journey
- voyageJourney by sea
- odysseyExtended adventurous journey
quest · caravan · wilderness · frontier · exploration · navigating · excursion · covered wagon
People leaving their country
- settlersThose who establish homes
- pioneersFirst to explore territory
- wagon trainPioneers' covered convoy
- homesteadersLand-claiming rural settlers
families · westward expansion · manifest destiny · homesteading · exodus · jumping off · prairie schooner · covered wagon
Early 1800s expedition leaders
- fur tradeCommercial exchange of animal skins
- gold rushMass migration seeking ore
- transcontinentalSpanning an entire continent
- frontierEdge of settlement
1840s · landmarks · Chimney Rock · Snake River · Columbia River · missionaries · trappers · mountain men
dysentery
Bloody intestinal infection
- choleraBacterial disease causing fatal dehydration
- typhoidSalmonella-caused systemic infection
- starvationExtreme nutritional deprivation
exhaustion · scurvy · frostbite · dehydration · malnutrition · snakebite · drowning · accidents · fever · illness
hunting
Pursuing wild game
fording · caulking · floating · tombstones · banker · carpenter · farmer · meager · grueling · steady
expedition
Organized exploratory journey
odyssey · quest · caravan · wilderness · frontier · exploration · navigating · excursion · covered wagon · overland
emigrants
People leaving their country
- settlersThose who establish homes
- pioneersFirst to explore territory
- wagon trainPioneers' covered convoy
homesteaders · families · westward expansion · manifest destiny · homesteading · exodus · jumping off · prairie schooner · covered wagon · ox team
Lewis and Clark
Early 1800s expedition leaders
- fur tradeCommercial exchange of animal skins
- gold rushMass migration seeking ore
- transcontinentalSpanning an entire continent
frontier · 1840s · landmarks · Chimney Rock · Snake River · Columbia River · missionaries · trappers · mountain men · trading posts
- Westward ExpansionLewis and Clark, covered wagons, pioneers, frontier, wagon trains
- Famous RoutesRoute 66, Silk Road, Trans-Siberian Railway, Pan-American Highway, Orient Express
- 1840sQueen Victoria, Treaty of Waitangi, daguerreotype, telegraph, potato famine
- 1840s-1850sCalifornia Gold Rush, Mexican-American War, Manifest Destiny, Underground Railroad, telegraph
- frontier historypioneers, settlers, homesteaders, frontier tales, westward expansion
- frontier trailsCumberland Gap, mountain passes
Oregon TrailTrail of Tears
1830s forced indigenous relocation
Eastern Seaboard · urban migration · Dust Bowl migration · Ellis Island
trail, trails, Oregon, trailblazer, trailblazing, trailblazers, trailhead, trailblaze, Oregonian