The Oregon Trail-
What was the Oregon Trail?

The Oregon Trail is the main route that the pioneers took to go west to the Pacific Northwest, then known as the Oregon Country.  It travels through parts of present-day Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon, and Washington.  In 1844, when the Simmons-Bush party left, the Rocky Mountains were the western boundary of the United States.  Everything past that point was a sort of no-man’s land, occupied by American Indians, Spanish, British, and Americans. 

A painting by William Henry Jackson showing emigrants on the Oregon Trail.
Courtesy of Scott's Bluff National Monument.

All the land west of the Rocky Mountains and north of Mexican California was called Oregon Country.  Since pioneers who went to Oregon Country were no longer in the United States, they were called emigrants, a word used for people who leave their home country.  (see map)

The name Oregon Trail is a bit misleading.  It sounds like there was a simple path that led straight from Missouri to Oregon.  But for early settlers like the Simmons-Bush party, the way was not so easy.  There were no roads in those days, only rough rocky trails, and in some places, not even that.  The Oregon Trail was not one set route.  It took many twists and turns, and there were shortcuts that could be taken.  A pioneer had to make careful choices about which way to go.

Later settlers had an easier time.  As the Trail became more traveled, hundreds of covered wagons created a clear path, which is still visible today in some places.  The later travelers also had the benefit of the settlers who had gone before them, who left messages, wrote guidebooks, and gave advice about the best routes to take.  Some guidebooks, however, were very misleading.  Some authors of guidebooks had never even been on the Oregon Trail.  The Simmons-Bush party were among the first settlers to use the Trail, and didn’t have these advantages.

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