Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

This route began at Independence, Mo., followed the Platte River, proceeded along the Snake River west of Fort Hall, Idaho, crossed the Rockies by S outh P ass , and used the Columbia River to reach the Willamette valley. Its length was approximately 2,000 miles and required about five months to cross with livestock. It was discovered in stages by fur trappers. Robert Newell took the first wagons over it in 1840. The first substantial Anglo-American migration started in 1843, when Peter Burnett led a party of 1,000 persons, 100 wagons, and 5,000 stock over it. From 1845 to 1850, 3,000 to 5,000 Americans annually took the trail to Oreg., but generally in small parties of a dozen wagons and a hundred people. This migration gave teeth to the US claim to possess the Pacific northwest under the L ouisiana P urchase . ... log in or subscribe to read full text