USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The historic 2, 170-mile (3, 490 km) Oregon Trail connected various towns along the Missouri River to Oregon’s Willamette Valley. It was used during the 19th century by Great Plains pioneers who were seeking fertile land in the West and North.

Detailed explanation-2: -Access to water was of paramount importance, and, for the greater part of its length, the trail followed the region’s three great rivers: the Platte (and its tributary the North Platte), the Snake, and, finally, the Columbia.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Oregon Trail Scenic Byway follows the main Oregon Trail from the crossing of the Snake River near Glenns Ferry to Bonneville Point, southeast of Boise.

Detailed explanation-4: -Ultimately, the Oregon part of the trail ended at Oregon City, Oregon, on the Willamette River south of Portland. Until 1846, however, the trail ended at The Dalles, where emigrants loaded their belongings onto rafts for the trip down the Columbia to the Willamette and from there to Oregon City.

Detailed explanation-5: -The Oregon Trail was a roughly 2, 000-mile route from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon, that was used by hundreds of thousands of American pioneers in the mid-1800s to emigrate west. The trail was arduous and snaked through Missouri and present-day Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho and finally into Oregon.