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[[File:Carte Lewis-Clark Expedition-en.png|thumb|upright=1.15|Route of the Lewis and Clark expedition]]
===Pacific Fur Company===
{{Main|Pacific Fur Company}}
Founded in 1810 by [[John Jacob Astor]] as a subsidiary of his [[American Fur Company]] (AFC)
[[File:U.S. Territorial Acquisitions.png|thumb|[[United States territorial acquisitions|U.S. territorial acquisitions]]{{endash}}portions of each territory were granted statehood since the 18th century.]]
Under Hunt, fearing attack by the [[Niitsitapi]], the overland expedition veered south of Lewis and Clark's route into what is now Wyoming and in the process passed across [[Union Pass]] and into [[Jackson Hole]], Wyoming. From there they went over the [[Teton Range]] via [[Teton Pass]] and then down to the Snake River into modern [[Idaho]]. They abandoned their horses at the Snake River, made dugout canoes, and attempted to use the river for transport. After a few days' travel, they soon discovered that steep canyons, waterfalls, and impassable rapids made travel by river impossible. Too far from their horses to retrieve them, they had to cache most of their goods and walk the rest of the way to the Columbia River where they made new boats and traveled to the newly established Fort Astoria. The expedition demonstrated that much of the route along the Snake River plain and across to the Columbia was passable by pack train or with minimal improvements, even wagons.<ref>{{cite web |title = Map of Astorian expedition, Lewis and Clark expedition, Oregon Trail, etc. in Pacific Northwest, etc |url = http://www.oregon.com/history/oregon_trail_maps.cfm |publisher = oregon.com |access-date = December 31, 2008 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090202113800/http://www.oregon.com/history/oregon_trail_maps.cfm |archive-date = February 2, 2009}}</ref> This knowledge would be incorporated into the concatenated trail segments as the Oregon Trail took its early shape.
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In August 1811, three months after [[Fort Astoria]] was established, [[David Thompson (explorer)|David Thompson]] and his team of North West Company explorers came floating down the Columbia to Fort Astoria. He had just completed a journey through much of western Canada and most of the Columbia River drainage system. He was mapping the country for possible fur trading posts. Along the way, he camped at the confluence of the Columbia and Snake Rivers and posted a notice claiming the land for Britain and stating the intention of the North West Company to build a fort on the site. When the War of 1812 broke out, the managers at Fort Astoria were concerned the British navy would seize their forts and supplies, and in 1813 they sold out to the North West Company.
By 1821, intense competition between the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] (HBC) and the North West Company reached the point of armed hostilities, and the British government pressured the two companies to merge. The newly reconfigured HBC had
From 1813 to the early 1840s the British, through the NWC and HBC, had nearly complete control of the Pacific Northwest and the western half of the Oregon Trail. In theory, the [[Treaty of Ghent]], which ended the War of 1812, restored possession of U.S. property in Oregon territory to the United States. "Joint occupation" of the region was formally established by the [[Anglo-American Convention of 1818]]. The British, through the HBC, tried to discourage any U.S. trappers, traders, and settlers from work or settlement in the Pacific Northwest.
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The HBC built a new much larger Fort Vancouver in 1825 about 90 miles upstream from Fort Astoria, on the north side of the Columbia River (they were hoping the Columbia would be the future Canada–U.S. border). The fort quickly became the center of activity in the Pacific Northwest. Every year ships would come from London to the Pacific (via [[Cape Horn]]) to drop off supplies and trade goods in its trading posts in the Pacific Northwest and pick up the accumulated furs used to pay for these supplies. It was the nexus for the fur trade on the Pacific Coast; its influence reached from the Rocky Mountains to the [[Hawaiian Islands]], and from [[Russian Alaska]] into Mexican-controlled California. At its pinnacle in about 1840, the manager of Fort Vancouver watched over 34 outposts, 24 ports, 6 ships, and about 600 employees.
When American emigration over the Oregon Trail began in earnest in the early 1840s, for many settlers the fort became the last stop on the Oregon Trail where they could get supplies, aid, and help before starting their homesteads.<ref name="Mackie1997"/> Fort Vancouver was the main re-supply point for nearly all Oregon trail travelers until U.S. towns could be established. The HBC established [[Fort Colvile]] in 1825 on the Columbia River near [[Kettle Falls]] as a good site to collect furs and control the upper Columbia River fur trade.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.nwcouncil.org/history/FortColville.asp |title = Fort Colville |publisher = Nwcouncil.org |access-date = March 19, 2011 }}</ref> [[Fort Nisqually]] was built near the present town of [[DuPont, Washington|DuPont]], Washington, and was the first HBC fort on Puget Sound. [[Fort Victoria (British Columbia)|Fort Victoria]] was erected in 1843 and became the headquarters of operations in British Columbia, eventually growing into modern-day [[Victoria, British Columbia|Victoria]], the capital city of British Columbia.
[[File:Oregoncountry.png|thumb|left|The Oregon Country/Columbia District stretched from 42'N to 54 40'N. The most heavily disputed portion is highlighted.]]
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bullets to help in Indian attacks, and striving to keep their men and children at
peace. They were the backbones of life on the wagon trail and took up not only their
regular duties but many duties of men as well.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schlissel |first1=Lillian |title=Mothers and Daughters on the Western Frontier |journal=Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies |volume=3}}</ref> However, feminist scholarship, by historians such as Lillian Schlissel,<ref>Lillian Schlissel, "Women's diaries on the western frontier." ''American Studies'' (1977): 87–100 [https://journals.ku.edu/index.php/amerstud/article/viewFile/2301/2260 online].</ref> Sandra Myres,<ref>Sandra L. Myres, ed., '' Ho for California!: Women's Overland Diaries from the Huntington Library'' (Huntington Library Press, 1980)</ref> and Glenda Riley,<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 969452 |title = The Specter of a Savage: Rumors and Alarmism on the Overland Trail |journal = The Western Historical Quarterly |volume = 15 |issue = 4 |pages = 427–444 |last1 = Riley |first1 = Glenda |year = 1984 |doi = 10.2307/969452 }}</ref> suggests men and women did not view the West and western migration in the same way. Whereas men might deem the dangers of the trial acceptable if there was a strong economic reward at the end, women viewed those dangers as threatening to the stability and survival of the family. Once they arrived at their new Western home, women's public role in building Western communities and participating in the Western economy gave them a greater authority than they had known back East. There was a "female frontier" that was distinct and different from that experienced by men.<ref>Kenneth L. Holmes, ''Covered Wagon Women,'' Volume 1, Introduction by Anne M. Butler, ebook version, University of Nebraska Press, (1983) pp 1–10.</ref>
Women's diaries kept during their travels or the letters they wrote home once they arrived at their destination support these contentions. Women wrote with sadness and concern about the numerous deaths along the trail. Anna Maria King wrote to her family in 1845 about her trip to the [[Luckiamute River|Luckiamute Valley]] Oregon and of the multiple deaths experienced by her traveling group:
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<blockquote>The mountains looked like volcanoes and the appearance that one day there had been an awful thundering of volcanoes and a burning world. The valleys were all covered with a white crust and looked like [[salaratus]]. Some of the companies used it to raise their bread.<ref>From the letter of Betsey Bayley, in ''Covered Wagon Women,'' Volume 1, by Kenneth L. Holmes, ebook version, University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln, 1983, p. 35.</ref></blockquote>
While women experienced many deaths and hardships on the trail, the trail was also a place for women to take on roles they had previously not been allowed to take on back east. Women started to use their journals on the trails to express themselves as “reporters, guides, poets, and historians.” They would jot down botany and different species on the trail to help feed their family. Women used their resourcefulness and creativity on the trail. <ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bledsoe |first1=Lucy Jane |title=Adventuresome Women on the Oregon Trail: 1840-1867 |journal=Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies
===Mormon emigration===
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===Trail decline===
The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, providing faster, safer, and usually cheaper travel east and west (the journey took seven days and cost as little as $65, or {{Inflation|US|65|
==Routes==
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As the trail developed it became marked by many cutoffs and shortcuts from Missouri to Oregon. The basic route follows river valleys as grass and water were necessary.
While the first few parties organized and departed from Elm Grove, the Oregon Trail's primary starting
The Oregon Trail's nominal termination point was [[Oregon City, Oregon|Oregon City]], at the time the proposed capital of the [[Oregon Territory]]. However, many settlers branched off or stopped short of this goal and settled at convenient or promising locations along the trail. Commerce with pioneers going further west helped establish these early settlements and launched local economies critical to their prosperity.
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