If you’ve never visited us at the California Trail Interpretive Center in Elko, you might be asking yourself, “What is the California Trail?” Many people have heard of the Oregon Trail, but the California Trail also spanned across the western United States and brought travelers face-to-face with their destinies – some ending in good fortune, and others ending in tragedy.
Dreaming of a Better Life
So, where is the California Trail? And where did the California Trail start? Open from 1841 to 1869, the California Trail brought emigrants from many locations in the East. Starting points varied, but most began somewhere along the Missouri River and ran parallel with the Oregon Trail, heading west. Eventually, the California Trail split off from the Oregon Trail and headed south to the numerous paths and “shortcuts” over the Sierra Nevada mountains and into California. One such cutoff led to the tragic events of the infamous Donner party.
How Long Was The California Trail?
There is no exact way to tell how long the California Trail was because each starting point was different. Historians place it close to 2,000 miles. Dangers such as disease, skirmishes with Native Americans awaited those who were brave enough to take the long journey.
The Search for Gold
Between the discovery of gold in 1848 and 1850, an estimated 75,000 people traveled the California Trail in search of their fortunes. Those numbers eclipsed all the previous years combined! However, word quickly spread about the difficulty of navigating the trail and eventually, the numbers dwindled. When the transcontinental railroad opened in 1869, the trail fell out of use completely.
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Courtesy S. Ward – Inside Lehman Caves