USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -In 1841, the Bartleson-Bidwell Party was the first emigrant group credited with using the Oregon Trail to emigrate west. The group set out for California, but about half the party left the original group at Soda Springs, Idaho, and proceeded to the Willamette Valley in Oregon, leaving their wagons at Fort Hall.

Detailed explanation-2: -An easier trail was needed. Robert Stuart of the Astorians (a group of fur traders who established Fort Astoria on the Columbia River in western Oregon) became the first white man to use what later became known as the Oregon Trail.

Detailed explanation-3: -Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reached the mouth of the Columbia in 1805, strengthening the U.S. claim to the region. John Jacob Astor, as the head of the Pacific Fur Company, began European American settlement of the Oregon country with the establishment of a trading post at Astoria in 1811.

Detailed explanation-4: -Early trailblazers. Portions of what was to become the Oregon Trail were first used by trappers, fur traders, and missionaries (c. 1811–40) who traveled on foot and horseback.

Detailed explanation-5: -Most of the pioneer families either followed the Oregon-California Trail or the Mormon Trail. Mormon pioneers began their trek to Utah in 1847 to escape religious persecution. Two years later gold was discovered in California, and thousands of “Forty-Niners” rushed across the continent.