Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/11



During the earlier years of the period 1849-1860 the emigrant and gold-seeker almost monopolized the California and Oregon Trail. Mail and freight service were in their infancy. The years 1849-1854 may be well portrayed by a study of the fortune hunters and emigrants. Further unity is lent to such a period by the fact that, with a few minor exceptions, the route of the trail as established by the end of 1849 remained the same throughout the ensuing five years. The period of the late fifties saw the emigrant sharing the trail with stage-coaches and long trains of freight wagons. New routes were opened and the old ones improved. It is of the earlier years that this chapter proposes to deal.

Some idea of the extent of the migration over the trail is essential to an understanding of many of the conditions and problems which had to be met. It is not the purpose of this work to go into any detail as to why people followed the trail itself. It is well known that the