Lewis and Clark Didn't Discover the Oregon Trail—Fur Traders and Settlers Did in the Early 1800s

The Oregon Trail was not discovered by Lewis and Clark. Their 1804–06 Corps of Discovery explored the Louisiana Purchase territory, reaching the Pacific via the Columbia River.

The Oregon Trail emerged later, blazed by fur trappers (e.g., Robert Stuart, 1812) and expanded by missionaries and settlers in the 1830s–40s. It became the primary overland route to the Willamette Valley and beyond.