USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -After crossing the South Platte River the Oregon Trail follows the North Platte River out of Nebraska into Wyoming.

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 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.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Oregon Trail had to eventually cross the South Platte River to gain access to the North Platte River, which overlanders followed all the way to the area of present-day Casper, Wyoming. This was done at California Crossing, named for the gold rushers of 1849. Before then it had been known as Brule Crossing.

Detailed explanation-5: -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.