What was the average time spent on the California Trail?

In 1841, the Bartleson-Bidwell party left Independence, Missouri and successfully used the South Pass to make the long journey to California. Thousands of others soon followed. The 2,400-mile trip was far from easy. At the time, the entire journey took five to six months to complete.



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While heavily traveled, the California Trail proved to be extremely difficult and even fatal for many travelers to cross. Fort Laramie was the last stop for many forty-niners before ascending the Rocky Mountains. Due to the necessity of lightening the load, gold-seekers discarded goods along the trail.

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In the mid-1840s, the overland trip took 5 – 6 months. The first wagons to come into California arrived at Sutter's Fort in 1844 with the Stephens-Murphy Party. After abandoning several wagons in the Sierra, the Stephens-Murphy Party crossed the mountains and traveled to the Fort with only five or six wagons.

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Surprisingly, considering how many wagons went West, very few faced attacks by the Indians. A well-led and disciplined train was more likely to get through without problems. The opposite was often true for small trains where discipline was lacking.

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1860s Steamship-Railroad-Steamship: 25-30 days. The New Orleans-San Francisco trip took twenty-five days, while the New York-San Francisco trip took 30 days.

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Travelers used grass or leaves or just plain dirt. Bark was also a paper substitute. It wasn't pretty, but no worse than many other realities pioneers faced on the emigrant trail.

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“Our ignorance of the route was complete. We knew that California lay west, and that was the extent of our knowledge.” John Bidwell. “October and the wagons were too heavy to get up the steep mountains, so they were left behind. Pushing through the mountains with a lighter load, the brave group walked into California.

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The California Trail is an emigrant trail that is about 3,000 miles in distance. Over 250,000 individuals and farmers used it while looking for gold in the gold fields and rich farmlands of the Golden State. It was open from 1841 to 1869, and was considered to be the greatest mass migration in the American History.

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When a family decided to join a wagon train, it often had to save money for three to five years before it could even begin the journey. The wagon cost around $400. The cost of the trip with supplies could be as much as $1,000.

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