Oregon Trails Over the Blue Mountains
1811–1852
Contributed by Steve F. Russell
The 1818 Walla Walla Trail was suitable for horses but not for wagons. Portions of the trail were used by Nathaniel Wyeth in 1832 and he traveled the full trail in 1834. The Whitman Party followed it in 1836. Portions of it were used by Wilson Hunt in 1811, who followed the original Indian trails and not the exact 1818 trail used by the HBC.
A practical wagon road route over the Blue Mountains did not become available until 1843 when the 1840 route of Newell and Meeks was improved by a large volume of wagon traffic between the Grand Ronde and the Whitman Mission. Between 1843 and 1847, wagon traffic went on to Fort Nez Perces (old Fort Walla Walla) and then down the Columbia River. This long trail loop northward to Fort Nez Perces was abandoned after the Whitmans were murdered by Indians in 1847, and the Whitman Mission was closed. Resupply at the Mission was no longer possible for Oregon Trail travelers.
By 1848, a new Oregon Trail route was established that turned westward along the Umatilla River to Echo and then crossed the land south of the Columbia River and terminated at The Dalles. The Oregon Trail of 1852 (Meeks) became the well-established route through Oregon, from the mouth of the Boise River to The Dalles.
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