California Trail: Difference between revisions

The '''California Trail''' went from western [[Missouri]] across the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plains Great Plains] into the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountains Rocky Mountains] to the gold fields of northern [[California]]. It was most heavily used in the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s. The length of the wagon trail from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_River Missouri River] to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento,_California Sacramento, California] was about 1,950 miles (3,138 km). It normally took four to six months to traverse the length of the California Trail with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covered_wagon covered wagons] pulled by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ox oxen]. About 250,000 pioneers, the most of any American [[US Migration Trails and Roads|emigration trail]], used it to reach California before the [[First Transcontinental Railroad|transcontinental railroad]] in 1869.<ref name="OrTr">Wikipedia contributors, "Oregon Trail" in ''Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia'' at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Trail (accessed 12 July 2012).</ref>  

'''Footpaths, wagons, and stagecoaches.''' The overland route over [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pass South Pass] was discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_men fur trappers] in 1811. By the 1830s that pass was used as part of the [[Oregon Trail]]. Between 1829 and 1840 other mountain men explored possible additional routes extending through northern [[Utah]] and [[Nevada]] toward [[California]]. At first these were footpaths or pack train trails. The earliest wagon road was pioneered through South Pass to a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_Rendezvous mountain man rendezvous] on the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_River_%28Utah%29 Green River] in [[Wyoming|Wyoming]] in 1830. By 1836 a wagon road reached as far as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hall Fort Hall], Idaho.<ref name="OrTr" /> In 1841 and 1843 wagon trains started for [[California|California]] but abandoned their wagons in [[Nevada|Nevada]] and went on by foot. The first overland wagon train to reach [[California|California]] arrived in 1844 by leaving the [[Oregon Trail|Oregon Trail]] after crossing the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raft_River Raft River] in [[Idaho|Idaho]]. From there they followed Nevada's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt_River Humboldt River] west to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Nevada_%28U.S.%29 Sierra Nevada] mountains, up the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truckee_River Truckee River] and over [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truckee_River Donner Pass] to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento,_California Sacramento, California]. This became the most popular route, but other pioneers also came via [[Salt Lake City, Utah|Salt Lake City, Utah]] to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Rocks_National_Reserve City of Rocks]. From 1857 to 1861 the [[Butterfield Overland Mail|Butterfield Overland Mail]] stagecoach route near the Mexican border opened to Calfornia. That mail route was closed in favor of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express Pony Express] (Central Overland) route through central Nevada farther south than the Humboldt River. In time these various paths to California were followed by wagon roads, railroads, and modern highways.<ref name="CaTr" />  

:*[[California]]

:*[[Butterfield Overland Mail]] 1857-1861 from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis,_Missouri St. Louis, Missouri] or [[Memphis, Tennessee]] across [[Texas]], southern [[New Mexico]] and [[Arizona]] to southern [[California]] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco,_California San Francisco]  

:*[[Central Overland Trail]] from [[Salt Lake City, Utah]] to [[Carson City, Nevada]] with connections to [[California]]  

:*[[Oregon Trail]] 1830s (and California Trail 1841) from western [[Missouri]] were the main trunk trails. The California Trail usually split off from the [[Oregon Trail]] after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raft_River Raft River] crossing near the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_River Snake River] in [[Idaho]]. The California Trail headed toward northern [[California]] via [[Nevada]]. The [[Oregon Trail]] continued to follow the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_River Snake River] to [[Oregon Genealogy|Oregon]] and beyond.<ref name="CaTr" />  

'''Modern parallels.''' The modern roads that roughly match the California Trail from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence,_Missouri Independence, Missouri] to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento,_California Sacramento] among other places in northern [[California]] are listed in an online edition of a National Park Service publication about the California Trail:  

Pioneers who used the California Trail were mostly Americans from the Midwest or Mid-South. Most settled in [[California]]. A few moved on to [[Oregon Genealogy|Oregon]]. A few may have settled along the trail before reaching California.