There you have the Oregon Trail to the north and the Santa Fe Trail to the south. THAT'S how one would get to California by land. (Still do, too.) For a time, that changed with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869. But we're back to the automobile now as passenger trains have all but disappeared from the American landscape.
Notice up at the top right, just under the horses hooves. That would be the Tetons, Yellowstone, the Snake River country. The reason there are no trails up there is because the country was virtually impassable by anything but fur trappers and mountain men. Check out a current road atlas. Still very few roads through there - especially the Snake River area and Hell's Canyon.
Wagon ruts from pioneers on the Oregon Trail are still visible at the Sweetwater River just west of Split Rock.
Following the footsteps of the Shoshone, Arapaho, Crow, and Sioux were fur-trappers in 1812 and mountain men, then in 1841 emigrants, Mormons in 1846, gold-rushers (known as '49ers), and the Pony Express riders of 1860. Those that created shortcuts were said to be following the California Trail.
Because there were about a half million people searching for new land and new lives in the American west, this path was originally known as the Emigrant Road. Today, there are re-enactors that form up wagon trains and travel these paths for weeks at a time. Later we'll tell you about crossing paths with one of those wagon trains...
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