Talk:Oregon Trail

BEN LIKES MEN!

Removed link

Removed http://www.pbs.org/opb/oregontrail/teacher/trailmap.html -- PBS lists the page as having been retired --Carnildo 07:41, 29 Jan 2004 (UTC)

About my changes: all but one detail I pulled from published histories I have about the Oregon Trail. The exception is the late of the last wagon train, which is based on family tradition: my (great-) Aunt Margaret came as a child from Missouri to Vancouver, Washington by wagon train (she told this to my father). Best I can determine, this happened after the railroad connected Oregon & Washington to the rest of the country, some time in the 1880s or 1890s. I hope my fellow contributors will overlook this use of unprinted sources.

Travel by wagon & horse was far less expensive than by train, & the Oregon Trail probably was used well into the 20th century, when paved roads at last rendered it unnecessary. -- llywrch 20:11, 29 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Quite likely that it was still used that late, and even later. I've seen paintings, photos, and reports of trains stopping for wagon trains, and vice versa. Further, US Highway 26 follows the trail for part of its length. --Carnildo 07:42, 30 Jan 2004 (UTC)

In "Dangers," I have always thought guns were the friend of the pioneer and Indians were the danger, but here apparently gun accidents are a greater danger than Indians. That sounds like a politicized slant, but I guess it would not be very difficult to locate sources to cite. I just cannot imagine that the Indians who were being genocided out of existence by the U.S. Army would be much help to pioneers, or maybe Dances With Wolves got it wrong.

• Don't get your time periods confused. Wahkeenah 12:26, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
  • "Between 1841 and 1869, the Oregon Trail was used by settlers to the Northwest and West Coast areas of what is now the United States." Dunbar was transfered to Ft. Sedgewick before the close of the Civil War (1865), and the white squaw in Dances With Wolves was taken from her home after the Pawnee Indians killed her parents. The actress who portrayed her was older than she would have been, but she was at least 20 years old, which would place the slaughter of her parents sometime before 1850. The film also showed that the Indians killed the white buffalo hunters they caught. Which is wrong, the movie that won Hollywood's highest honor in 1990 or the Wikipedia article that says the Indians helped the pioneers? User:69.255.0.91 11:59, 2 July 2006 (UTC)
    • Well, which source do you trust more? Wahkeenah 13:11, 2 July 2006 (UTC)
    • Given the choice between a Hollywood drama and an unsourced Wikipedia article, I'll believe the article any day. Wikipedia doesn't have an economic incentive to dramatize things. --Carnildo 08:11, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Cleanup

Thanks to the editor who did the cleanup. The article still needs sources and with all the additions and subtractions by various editors, I think the history section needs to have its facts checked. I'm not sure it's entirely chronological at this point, and has left out some key points. I'm not going to slap the {{cleanup}} tag back on this, but I thought I'd make a note here. I hope to get around to it, but I also hope someone beats me to it. The routes section could use a going-over too. Katr67 15:48, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

The article completely leaves out the Jedediah Smith/William Sublette/David Edward Jackson partnership that was instrumental in opening the trail. http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/grte/chap2.htm Katr67 05:27, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Donner Party

I don't understand all the references to the Donner Party. They were following a branch of the California Trail when they were trapped, not the Oregon Trail. –Shoaler (talk) 10:14, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I guess because they were on the California Trail, which was identical to the Oregon Trail into Wyoming, where the two split. Still, seems a bit of a tangent, or could at least be described better. I'll see what I can do if I ever find more than 2 minutes of time.Pfly 21:18, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Singularity

It seems unusual that there would be only one land route from the settled parts of the United States to the Western territories (where the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails coincide). It would be interesting to explain alternate land routes, and to what extent they were used. Were more northerly or southerly routes avoided because of terrain, or potential attacks from locals? -- Beland 19:59, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Image:1845_trailmap.gif would also seem to indicate that availability of water transport to Independence from the East and South helped make that region a common starting point. -- Beland 20:21, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

There are two major factors that restricted the route:

1. The only reliable water sources on the Great Plains are the rivers, and there aren't many of them.
2. There are very few passes through the Rocky Mountains. Prior to the invention of modern earth-moving capabilities, only South Pass was really viable for wagons. Everything else was too steep, snowed-in too much of the year, or did not have reliable rivers on both sides of the pass.

--Carnildo 23:45, 23 March 2007 (UTC)