May 22nd...This Day in History (Now with links to other events)

Great Emigration departs for Oregon 1843

 

A massive wagon train, made up of 1,000 settlers and 1,000 head of cattle, sets off down the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri. Known as the “Great Emigration,” the expedition came two years after the first modest party of settlers made the long, overland journey to Oregon.

After leaving Independence, the giant wagon train followed the Sante Fe Trail for some 40 miles and then turned northwest to the Platte River, which it followed along its northern route to Fort Laramie, Wyoming. From there, it traveled on to the Rocky Mountains, which it passed through by way of the broad, level South Pass that led to the basin of the Colorado River. The travelers then went southwest to Fort Bridger, northwest across a divide to Fort Hall on the Snake River, and on to Fort Boise, where they gained supplies for the difficult journey over the Blue Mountains and into Oregon. The Great Emigration finally arrived in October, completing the 2,000-mile journey from Independence in five months.

In the next year, four more wagon trains made the journey, and in 1845 the number of emigrants who used the Oregon Trail exceeded 3,000. Travel along the trail gradually declined with the advent of the railroads, and the route was finally abandoned in the 1870s.

 (More Events on This Day in History)

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• Automotive

• 1969 “Winning” released, stars Paul Newman as a race car driver

• Civil War

• 1856 Southern congressman attacks Northern senator

• Cold War

• 1977 Jimmy Carter reaffirms his commitment to human rights

• Crime

• 1981 Atlanta child murderer is questioned
• 2002 Chandra Levy’s remains found

• Disaster

• 1967 Belgian department store burns

• General Interest

• 1455 The War of the Roses
• 1972 President Nixon in Moscow
• 1990 Yemen united

• Hollywood

• 2004 Controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 wins Palme d’Or

• Literary

• 1859 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is born

• Music

• 1958 Jerry Lee Lewis drops a bombshell in London

• Old West

• 1843 A thousand pioneers head West on the Oregon Trail

• Presidential

• 1802 Martha Washington dies

• Sports

• 2003 Sorenstam makes history

• Vietnam War

• 1964 Rusk warns North Vietnamese
• 1969 Negotiators differ on diplomatic exchange

• World War I

• 1917 Crisis in Austria-Hungary

• World War II

• 1939 The Pact of Steel is signed; the Axis is formed
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