The Oregon Trail is the most famous of the emigrant roads forged in the nineteenth century to settle the great American West. Stretching 2,000 miles from Missouri to Oregon's Willamette Valley, the Trail saw its heaviest use from the 1840s to the 1860s. Many of its great landmarks can still be visited today.
Independence was the traditional launch point for the Oregon Trail (and a number of other western roads), a spot where emigrants could acquire supplies and prepare themselves for the rigors ahead. Visit the town's National Frontier Trails Museum to learn more.
In far western Nebraska, several distinctive buttes gained prominence as Oregon Trail landmarks. Chimney Rock, a striking spire; the ruined wall of Scotts Bluff (protected today as a national monument); and the towers of Courthouse and Jail rocks still stand along the North Platte River valley.
South Pass in southwestern Wyoming marks the Oregon Trail's traverse of the Rocky Mountains. Despite an elevation of more than 7,500 feet, the pass is broad and mostly level, a high valley affording the easiest crossing of the rugged Rockies. The Bureau of Land Management maintains an interpretive overlook at the site.
The Oregon Trail forded the Snake River at Three Island Crossing near present-day Glenns Ferry, Idaho.
In northeastern Oregon, the Trail crossed the northern portion of the Blue Mountains. While the journey was rugged and difficult, many emigrants reveled in the Blues' forests, more substantial than any most had seen since entering the Great Plains. A number of sites in the Blues are preserved, including Hilgard Junction State Park near La Grande.
Oregon City marked the end of the 2,000-mile journey: the first American city incorporated west of the Rocky Mountains. Oregon City now houses the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.
