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Line 1: − The '''Oregon Trail''' was the 2000 mile overland route by which people walked for six months from the Midwest to Oregon and the northern West Coast before the railroad opened in 1869. It was one of the great routes used to open the [[American frontier]]—people wanted the cheap rich farmlands, as well as the adventure and the self-determination involved in creating new communities. The route was the most efficient way to travel, but involved crossing wide rivers and high mountains; there were many attacks by Indians, so settlers normally went in groups of 100 to 500 people in wagon trains. + + + Line 37:
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map and bibl
The '''Oregon Trail''' was the 2000 mile overland route by which people walked for six months from the Midwest to Oregon and the northern West Coast before the railroad opened in 1869. It was one of the great routes used to open the [[American frontier]]—people wanted the cheap rich farmlands, as well as the adventure and the self-determination involved in creating new communities. The route was the most efficient way to travel, but involved crossing wide rivers and high mountains; there were many attacks by Indians, so settlers normally went in groups of 100 to 500 people in wagon trains.
[[Image:OREGON-TRAIL.JPG|thumb|350px]]
==Origins==
==Origins==
==Bibliography==
==Bibliography==
* David Lavender, Westward Vision: The Story of the Oregon Trail. (1961)
* Lavender, David. ''Westward Vision: The Story of the Oregon Trail''. (1961) [http://www.questia.com/read/15031627?title=Westward%20Vision%3a%20The%20Story%20of%20the%20Oregon%20Trail online edition], good popular history
* Unruh, John D., Jr. ''The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-1860.'' (1979), the outstanding scholarly history. [http://books.google.com/books?id=hM2_IXMY3jQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:The+intitle:Plains+intitle:Across+intitle:The+intitle:Overland+intitle:Emigrants&lr=&num=30&as_brr=0 excerpt and text search]
===Primary sources===
* Morgan, Dale. ''Overland in 1846: Diaries and Letters of the California-Oregon Trail'' (2 vol 1993) [http://www.questia.com/read/3614792?title=Overland%20in%201846%3a%20Diaries%20and%20Letters%20of%20the%20California-Oregon%20Trail%20-%20Vol.%201 vol 1 online]; [http://www.questia.com/read/95958145?title=Overland%20in%201846%3a%20Diaries%20and%20Letters%20of%20the%20California-Oregon%20Trail%20-%20Vol.%202 vol 2 online]
* Parkman, Francis. ''The Oregon Trail'' (1849); one of the great classics of American writing; [http://books.google.com/books?id=s7xHAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:oregon+intitle:trail+inauthor:parkman&lr=&num=30&as_brr=0 online edition]
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