Oregon Trail Opens: 1843 Migration Westward
The Great Migration of 1843 departed Independence, Missouri, on May 22, with approximately 875 emigrants in 120 wagons heading for Oregon's Willamette Valley. Missionary Marcus Whitman, who had traveled the route before, helped guide the wagon train through the difficult Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon, disproving claims by Hudson's Bay Company representatives that wagons could not cross the Rockies. The journey covered 2,000 miles in six months. Previous migrations had been small parties; this was the first large-scale wagon train, and its success opened the floodgates. By 1844, over 1,500 settlers traveled the Oregon Trail, and by 1848, after the discovery of gold in California, the numbers exploded into the hundreds of thousands.
May 22, 1843
183 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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