USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Up to 3, 000 mountain men were trappers and explorers, employed by various British and United States fur companies or working as free trappers, who roamed the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 to the early 1840s. They usually traveled in small groups for mutual support and protection.

Detailed explanation-2: -Famous explorers like Robert Stuart, Jedediah Smith, and Marcus Whitman found the South Pass through the mountains and blazed the trail that made wagon travel across the continent possible.

Detailed explanation-3: -It effectively opened the floodgates of pioneer migration along the Oregon Trail and became known as the Great Emigration of 1843.

Detailed explanation-4: -There were many reasons for the westward movement to Oregon and California. Economic problems upset farmers and businessmen. Free land in Oregon and the possibility of finding gold in California lured them westward.

Detailed explanation-5: -The Oregon Trail didn’t follow a single set path. Pioneers often spread out for several miles across the plains to hunt, find grazing patches for their animals and avoid the choking dust clouds kicked up by other wagon trains.