The California - Oregon Trail
1840s & 1850s
Each spring thousands of emigrants camped in these hills and meadows waiting for new grass to support their teams along the trail. Wagons lined St. Joseph streets to the east waiting for two to three days to be ferried from this point. The settlers faced up to five months of hardships, sickness and danger in a trip beyond the protection of the U.S. Government. In the 1840s and 50s, hundreds of thousands of emigrants followed the St. Joe Road west seeking homesteads or gold on the California and Oregon trails.
As the Western expansion continued, St. Joseph became a major wholesale and business center.
Courtesy hmdb.org
