USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The Oregon Trail’s nominal termination point was Oregon City, at the time the proposed capital of the Oregon Territory. However, many settlers branched off or stopped short of this goal and settled at convenient or promising locations along the trail.

Detailed explanation-2: -Officially, according to an act of Congress, it begins in Independence, Missouri, and ends in Oregon City, Oregon. To the settlers, though, the trail to the Oregon Country was a five-month trip from their old home in the East to their new home in the West.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Oregon Trail was a wagon road stretching 2170 miles from Missouri to Oregon’s Willamette Valley. It was not a road in any modern sense, only parallel ruts leading across endless prairie, sagebrush desert, and mountains.

Detailed explanation-4: -The route that became known as the Oregon Trail, or more precisely the Oregon and California Trail, as branches led to northern and southern California, began at Independence, Missouri. Ultimately, the Oregon part of the trail ended at Oregon City, Oregon, on the Willamette River south of Portland.

Detailed explanation-5: -Oregon City was the end of the trail for many because it was where land claims were granted for Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Wyoming.