If you home school, teach elementary classes, or just enjoy history, "The Oregon Trail" is designed for you. Enjoy the adventure!
Created by Bob Dunn, who is a Virginia native and lifelong lover of history. He created this site in December 2001 to share his passion for making history fun for children and adults alike.
The most common wagons used for hauling freight back East were the Conestogas, developed in Pennsylvania by descendants of German colonists. Conestoga wagons were large, heavy, and had beds shaped somewhat like boats, with angled ends and a floor that sloped to the middle so barrels wouldn't roll out when the wagon was climbing or descending a hill. Like the covered wagons of the western pioneers, it had a watertight canvas bonnet to shelter the cargo. Conestogas were pulled by teams of six or eight horses and could haul up to five tons.
The End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center maintains an online version of many
different Oregon Trail, Clackamas County, Oregon City, and the State of Oregon history
articles. This section provides you with the ability to learn more about these topics.
Sure, you've heard of the Oregon Trail computer game, but there's so much more.....
The Oregon Trail is the best known of all the many historic routes used by Americans in the settlement of the West. Stretching for more than 1,900 miles from Missouri to the Willamette Valley, the trail spanned more than half the continent.
The Oregon National Trail is a 2,000 mile monument to the human spirit. In the sixty odd years of its use, thousands of Americans headed west, first for fur, then as missionaries, and finally for land. Between 1841 and the turn of the century, over 300,000 Americans of all ages and walks of life sold most of their worldly possessions, piled what was left in a wagon and set off on an epic journey.