Since the early days of America’s history, brave pioneers had been instrumental in opening up new land and reclaiming it from the wilderness. This same spirit of adventure had been steadily moving people west since the days of the Pilgrims, but by the mid-1800’s, the farmers had reached the western plains which they thought were not suitable for agriculture. These people heard that across the prairie and over rugged mountains was a land that was fertile. Some stories told about Oregon were true, but others were so exaggerated that it is amazing to think that people believed them; it seemed rather like a modern day Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey.

Long before the pioneers reached Oregon, industrious white men saw the territory was rich with fur pelts. During the early 1800’s, John Jacob Astor planned to set up trading posts in the vast western land and build a large settlement along the Columbia River where his company could trap and trade for furs. Soon a race began between Astor’s Pacific Fur Company and the British Hudson Bay Company to be the first to establish a fort in Oregon. Triumphantly the Americans arrived in Oregon aboard the Tonquin in 1811, and set up a post they dubbed Fort Astoria in honor of their founder. These early mountain men paved the way for future settlements by Americans. Robert Stuart, one of Astor’s partners, discovered a route over the Rocky Mountains in October of 1812, when he crossed the Great Divide at South Pass in present day Wyoming. This discovery seemed insignificant at the time, but soon became valuable as the easiest pass through the Rocky Mountains.

As reports of Oregon reached the east, missionaries became interested in serving there. A story was widely circulated in the east about four Indians who traveled from Oregon to St. Louis to seek the White Man’s Book of Heaven. Although some claim that the story was fictional, it helped missionaries to see Oregon as a spiritually hungry place and they began setting up missions in the new territory. In 1836, Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa, Reverend Henry Spalding, and his wife Eliza, left the comforts of the east to minister in Oregon. Narcissa and Eliza were the first white women to cross the Continental Divide. Their journey proved that women, and thus whole families, could travel overland to Oregon.

An economic depression that took place in the late 1830’s, called the Panic of 1837, led countless emigrants to seek new land in Oregon. Many people longed for a fresh start and the vivid tales of Oregon were just what their itching ears wanted to hear. Oregon promised fertile soil and a pleasant climate. During the following years a few pioneers reached this alleged Promised Land, but in 1843, the Great Migration began. A wagon train with 1,000 emigrants and 120 wagons headed west. Thus begins the history of the Oregon Trail, which vibrantly lives as one of the greatest chapters in American history.