Most settled in Oregon, especially in the Willamette Valley, but about 20 percent moved on to Washington (state) before 1870. Pioneers who used the Oregon Trail were mostly Americans from the Midwest or Mid-South. First white women over the RockiesĀ : diaries, letters and biographical sketches of the six women of the Oregon Mission who made the overland journey in 18. Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and the opening of old Oregon Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and the opening of old Oregon. Portland, Oregon: Binford & Mort.,1947 FHL 979.53 H2c Willamette landings, ghost towns of the river. Seattle,Washington: University of Washington Press, 1978.
The Willamette Valley: migration and settlement on the Oregon frontier. About 80,000 pioneers used it to reach Oregon, and about 20,000 to Washington before the transcontinental railroad in 1869. It normally took four to six months to traverse the length of the Oregon Trail with wagons pulled by oxen. The length of the wagon trail from the Missouri River to Willamette Valley was about 2,000 miles (3,200 km). It was the longest historic overland migration trail in North America.
It was most heavily used in the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s. The Oregon Trail went from western Missouri across the Great Plains into the Rocky Mountains to Oregon City, Oregon. The usage of "Mormon" and "LDS" on this page is approved according to current policy.