Today in 1843, a large group of of over 1,000 promising settlers leave Independence Missouri in Wagons to journey the Oregon trail. The band of settlers would begin down the Santa Fe trail for around 40 miles, until heading Northwest and following the Platte river into Wyoming. from here, settlers would next journey through the Rocky Mountains and to the basin of the Colorado River. The trail would then take settlers from Fort to fort, until finally reaching Oregon. The entire journey was over 2,000 miles long and took around five months to complete.
In the years to follow, four more large pools of wagons would begin the trail to a new life. By 1845 over 3,000 hopeful settlers would travel via the Oregon trail to join other emigrants. The number of trail goers would decline with the introduction of railroads, and in the 1870s the trail would be abandoned completely.
