Westward Ho!
Cast your mind back some 170 years, when the United States was a young country, looking west at their newly acquired domain, including the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Oregon Country (1818 and 1819). This region had been explored fairly well by the mountain men who scoured the land for beaver and other furs, but few settlers had ventured into the wilderness. A few missionaries had headed into Oregon, with mountain men acting as guides through the difficult and rugged terrain. Jedediah Smith, Kit Carson, James Ohio Pattie, and Joseph Walker had all blazed trails through the southern Rockies and the Great Basin desert, and noted the most promising routes.
At that time, the Church of the Latter Day Saints (the Mormons), was running into trouble wherever they went. They had moved to the western frontier, in Illinois, but soon came under attack by non-Mormons in the community. They determined to move out of the United States altogether, and chose as their destination the lands within Mexico, west of the Rocky Mountains. Their leader, Brigham Young, organized an ambitious expedition along the Platte River, across the Continental Divide, through the Wasatch Mountains, and into the wide valley of the Great Salt Lake. The original 1848 emigrants included about 2400 men, women, and children, in 923 wagons. This journey was the first trickle of what would be a flood of emigrants over the next 20 years.
By the time the Latter-Day Saints had reached the Great Salt Lake, the United States had won the Mexican War & gained the lands included within the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which included most of present-day California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. So they failed to leave the county, but nevertheless persevered in their frontier colony, where their population enjoyed steady increases from regular caravans of emigrants, escaping both the east coast and the crowded cities of Europe.
In 1849, gold was discovered in California, and a new group of emigrants started flooding west along the trail the mountain men and the Mormons had blazed. Soon the rush was on, as thousands of people loaded up their Conestoga wagons, hitched up their oxen, and bade Missouri, and the rest of the known world farewell. In addition to California and Utah, many more headed to Oregon, to the lush farmland of the Willamette Valley.
No matter where their final destinations, the first part of the route varied little. North through Kansas and Nebraska along the Missouri River, then west through the plains of Nebraska and Wyoming along the Platte River. The last major outpost was at Fort Laramie, where emigrants stocked up on provisions and sent a last flurry of letters home. Then on along the Platte to central Wyoming, where they parted ways with the faithful river, and crossed the sagebrush desert to South Pass, the lowest point of the Continental Divide. Past South Pass, one trail continued south, towards Salt Lake City and eventually California. Another veered north, through Idaho, along the Snake River, and into Oregon. This route was so successful that not only was it used by the emigrants, but it was later used by the Central Overland, California, and Pikes Peak Express stage route, and also by Union Pacific, when they built the transcontinental railroad in 1869.
For decades, cross-country traffic passed over South Pass, until the advent of the interstate, which was built some 30 miles south of the traditional route. But the westward expansion itself has still not stopped. The western states are still the least populous and developed in the nation, but in the last decade, have experienced the greatest growth. While the national annual growth rate is about 1%, only a few areas in Wyoming and Montana experience less than that. Otherwise, nearly every western county experiences annual growth between 1.5%-13%, creating overall growth unmatched east of the Rockies, with exceptions in Florida and Texas. The new homesteaders are hardly moving to the wilderness though-- most westerners today favor urban areas, and those who do choose a rural life are more likely to choose a modem over a mule to go with their 40 acres.
The ever changing face of the west can't be seen at South Pass any more -- this once-busy crossing now sees only a few trucks and sightseers detouring along WY Hwy 20. Rather than the din of oxen, tired travelers, and miners delving for gold, the sound of South Pass today is that of the wind blowing unimpeded through the sagebrush, heard only by passing antelope. Today the lands around South Pass are managed mostly by the Wyoming Bureau of Land Management. Team North will be exploring this area for the next few days, and will relive the exciting era of early exploration with visits to Emigrant Springs (on BLM lands north of Fossil Butte National Monument), and the Green River, which was a "highway" for the mountain men and a frequent site for their wild rendezvous. They will note the same landmarks which steered westward travelers along the trail, and they'll even travel like the mountain men, paddling canoes down the river, and stopping for expeditions on foot. -- Ellen K. Dornan
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Indian Emigrant relations interpretative area along the Oregon Trail, Rock Springs Field Office.
Graves along the Oregon Trail attest to the difficulty of the journey. Courtesy BLM Wyoming State Office.
Names Hill still shows many of the names of the settlers who passed this way. Courtesy BLM Wyoming State Office.
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