Open from 1841 to 1869, the California Trail brought emigrants from many locations in the East. Starting points varied, but most began somewhere along the Missouri River and ran parallel with the Oregon Trail, heading west.
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The classic overland trip from the Midwest to Oregon and California was lengthy and very difficult. It was approximately a 2,000 mile trip. In good weather, a wagon train would complete the journey in five months. However, heavy rains were known to make the typical trip last around six months.
“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.
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.
After 1848, gold lured many, but it wasn't the only reason to venture to California. People came for reasons including economics, adventure, health, and ideas like Manifest Destiny. In the prosperity of the early 1830s, Americans speculated wildly in land, which ended in the Panic of 1837 and a subsequent depression.
It normally took four to six months to traverse the length of the California Trail with covered wagons pulled by oxen. About 250,000 pioneers, the most of any American emigration trail, used it to reach California before the transcontinental railroad in 1869.
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.
The wagon train is probably one of those images. What exactly was a wagon train? It was a group of covered wagons, usually around 100 of them. These carried people and their supplies to the West before there was a transcontinental railroad.
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.