1843
The Great Emigration departs for Oregon
^top^ A massive wagon train, made up of a thousand settlers and a thousand head of cattle, set off down the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri. Known as the "Great Emigration," the expedition came two years after the first modest party of settlers made the long, overland journey to Oregon.
After leaving Independence, the wagon train followed the Sante Fe Trail for some forty miles and then turned northwest to the Platte River, which they followed along its northern route to Fort Laramie, Wyoming. From there, they traveled on to the Rocky Mountains, which they passed through by way of the broad, level South Pass that led to the basin of the Colorado River.
The travelers then went southwest to Fort Bridger, northwest across a divide to Fort Hall on the Snake River, and on to Fort Boise, where they gained supplies for the difficult journey over the Blue Mountains and into Oregon. The massive wagon train finally arrived in October, completing the 3000-km journey from Independence in five months. In the next year, four more wagon trains made the journey, and by 1845, the number of emigrants exceeded three thousand. Travel along the Oregon Trail gradually declined with the coming of the railroads, and the route was finally abandoned in the 1870s.
A thousand pioneers head West on the Oregon Trail The first major wagon train to the northwest departs from Elm Grove, Missouri, on the Oregon Trail. Although US sovereignty over the Oregon Territory was not clearly established until 1846, American fur trappers and missionary groups had been living in the region for decades. Dozens of books and lectures proclaimed Oregon's agricultural potential, tweaking the interest of American farmers. The first overland immigrants to Oregon, intending primarily to farm, came in 1841 when a small band of 70 pioneers left Independence, Missouri. They followed a route blazed by fur traders, which took them west along the Platte River through the Rocky Mountains via the easy South Pass in Wyoming and then northwest to the Columbia River. In the years to come, pioneers came to call the route the Oregon Trail.
In 1842, a slightly larger group of 100 pioneers made the 3000 km journey to Oregon. The next year, however, the number of emigrants rose to 1000. The sudden increase was a product of a severe depression in the Midwest combined with a flood of propaganda from fur traders, missionaries, and government officials extolling the virtues of the land. Farmers dissatisfied with their prospects in Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee, hoped to find better lives in the supposed paradise of Oregon. On this day in 1843, some 1000 men, women, and children climbed aboard their wagons and steered their horses west out of the small town of Elm Grove, Missouri. The train comprised more than 100 wagons with a herd of 5000 oxen and cattle trailing behind. Dr. Elijah White, a Presbyterian missionary who had made the trip the year before, served as guide. The first section of the Oregon Trail ran through the relatively flat country of the Great Plains. Obstacles were few, though the river crossings could be dangerous for wagons. The danger of Indian attacks was a small but genuine risk. To be on the safe side, the pioneers drew their wagons into a circle at night to create a makeshift stockade. If they feared Indians might raid their livestock-the Plains tribes valued the horses, though generally ignored the oxen-they would drive the animals into the enclosure. Although many neophyte pioneers believed Indians were their greatest threat, they quickly learned that they were more likely to be injured or killed by a host of more mundane causes. Obstacles included accidental discharge of firearms, falling off mules or horses, drowning in river crossings, and disease. After entering the mountains, the trail also became much more difficult, with steep ascents and descents over rocky terrain. The pioneers risked injury from overturned and runaway wagons. Yet, as with the 1000-person party that made the journey in 1843, the vast majority of pioneers on the trail survived to reach their destination in the fertile, well-watered land of western Oregon. The migration of 1844 was smaller than that of the previous season, but in 1845 it jumped to nearly 3000. Thereafter, migration on the Oregon Trail was an annual event, although the practice of traveling in giant convoys of wagons gave way to many smaller bands of one or two-dozen wagons. The trail was heavily traveled until 1884, when the Union Pacific constructed a railway along the route.
1998
Ben Walker, 16, from injuries received the previous
day
1885
In 1823, Hugo published his first novel, 
