The Oregon Trail

                           

Actual covered wagon from the 1800s that made the trip

Today Kathy and I continued our NW RV trip by traveling from Twin Falls, ID, through Oregon, to Plymouth, Washington on the Columbia River.  Just outside Baker City, Oregon, we stopped for a picnic lunch at a BLM interpretive center providing information on the Emigrant Trail...  also known as the Oregon Trail.   From the middle 1800s,  and continuing on to near the end of the 1800s, several hundred thousand traveled by covered wagons, from Missouri to Western Oregon, virtually all following the Oregon Trail.

After spending an hour or so reading and learning of this part of American history, I now have a new appreciation of the Emigrant effort.  Any thoughts that might have entered my mind that the trailer pulling trip we are on, was a little bit similar to crossing the country in a covered wagon, were totally erased.  This was a tough 2000+ mile trip that took six months, and it looks to me that one would be lucky to make it through alive.  It would have been very lucky to make it through alive, with your family intact.

Here are just a few other pics from the day.

An amazing statement at the Emigrant Interpretive Ctr - on the Oregon Trail outside of Baker City, OR

If you zoom in you may be able to pick out the remains of the wagon tracks from long ago

Relaxing in Plymouth, WA on the Columbia River