If you walk along the 2,000-mile-long Oregon Trail today, which stretches from Missouri northwest to Oregon, it will be very different from what early settlers walked along during the 1830s through 1860s. This is because much of the landscape has eroded, most of the Native American groups are gone or relocated and the majority of the trail's roaming buffalo have disappeared. However, there are still several things you can expect on the now legendary Oregon Trail.
Just like the settlers of old, you can experience Oregon Trail's many gigantic, jaw-dropping rock formations. As the history resource website History Globe notes, some of the most famous include the 325-foot Chimney Rock, which marks the end of prairies and the beginning of the Rocky Mountains; and the 128-foot tall, 700-foot wide and a whopping 1,900-foot long Independence Rock, which is also known as the Great Register of the Desert.
Approximately 12 miles east of Chimney Rock, in the Platte River Valley, you can see the butte-like structures of Courthouse Rock, and its slightly shorter counterpart, the aptly named Jailhouse Rock.
In addition to encountering megaliths that are products of Mother Nature, you can also find man-made marvels on the Oregon Trail. According to History Globe, these include Fort Laramie and Fort Hall. Fur traders set up the original Fort Laramie---under the name of Fort William---in 1834. However, in 1849 the United States military bought the fort and renamed it for a French fur Trapper, Jacque La Ramie. The fort still stands today between the Laramie and North Platte Rivers, and has been a National Monument since 1937.
The trader Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth built Fort Hall in what is now Idaho in 1834, and until 1843 this was often the spot where settlers abandoned their wagons and finished the trail by foot as the terrain became rougher. The original Fort Hall no longer stands, but today you can find a replica along the Oregon Trail.
As the Oregon-California Trails Association points out, some of the animals that early settlers traveling along the Oregon Trail would commonly encounter included buffalo, deer, antelope, rabbits, beavers, coyotes, wolves and rattlesnakes. Today, you can still expect to see some of these animals on the trail; however, perhaps not in as great of numbers.
The thousands of settlers that moved along the Oregon Trail did not carry any unnecessary weight with them in their wagons. For this reason, you can still find trash, scraps and other debris that settlers unloaded along the trail. According to Idaho State University, these include original wagon ruts, which many historical organizations are working to preserve.
