Oregon Trail Overland pioneer route to the northwestern United States. About 3200 km, about 2000 mi long, the trail extended from Independence, Missouri, to the Columbia River in Oregon. Part of the route followed the Platte River for 870 km (540 mi) through what is now Nebraska to Fort Laramie in present-day Wyoming. The trail continued along the North Platte and Sweetwater rivers to South Pass in the Wind River Range of the Rocky Mountains. From there the main …showed first 75 words of 359 total…

…showed last 75 words of 359 total…oneer physician Elijah White, reached Oregon in 1842. The trip took the early pioneers four to six months, a journey fraught with much hardship resulting from poor equipment, illness, and attack by the Native Americans, for whom the growing number of pioneers on the trail was an ever-constant threat. At first, the termination point of the Oregon Trail was Oregon City, Oregon; later, settlers continued south to the fertile and valuable land in the Willamette Valley.