Established
in 1841, the California Trail was the overland route
that brought an estimated quarter of a million emigrants
to the Golden State. The trail roughly followeds the
same path of as the Oregon Trail,
but extended to California from various points in southwestern
Wyomning and southern Idaho. As the trail approached
the Reno, Nevada area, it again split into several trails
all ending in or near Sacramento. Like its counterpart,
the Oregon Trail, there was never really a single trail,
rather a network of interwoven trails.
In 1841, John Bidwell (right) led the
Bidwell-Bartleson Party across what would soon be called
the California Trail. Two years later, Joseph Chiles
would repeat Bidwell's journey. In 1844, Caleb Greenwwod
and the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party would be the
first to take wagons over the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
In 1845, Lansford W. Hastings and John C. Frémont
guided several hundred pioneers to California. (The
next year, Hastings persuaded another group of emigrants
to follow his "shortcut"
that ran to the south of the estabnlished trail.)
The floodgates opened following the
discovery of gold in California. According to one staistic,
over 70,000 emigrants used the California trail in 1849
and 1850.
Eventually, the railroad and modern
highways followed the corridors established by the California
Trail. Between Elko, Nevada and Sacramento, California,
Route 40 follows the path of the California Trail.
For more information, visit these fine
web sites:
Oregon-California
Trails Association
National Park Service California Trail Site
California
National Historic Trail Association
