1. California Trail

2. California Trail
The California Trail was one of several major routes used by settlers during westward expansion.
The trail itself followed the same path as the Oregon Trail until Fort Hall, Idaho, where it spiraled southwest along the Humboldt River through the Great Basin of Nevada, the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, and finally to Sutter’s Fort, (Sacramento) California.
Over 250,000 gold-seekers and farmers-to-be used the trail to seek fortune in the mines, or, to settle on farm homesteads
California Trail was no longer used after the introduction of the railroads.

4. Independence, Missouri
Independence was founded in 1827 and quickly became an important frontier town.
As the farthest place west on the Missouri River that steamboats could carry cargo, it was essential as a transportation port, and would become the starting point for the Oregon, Santa Fe, and California Trails.
Today, the city of Independence holds the annual Santa-Caligon Days Festival, a celebration of the city’s history as the starting point for the Santa-Fe, California, and Oregon Trails.

6. Independence, Missouri and Great Plains
The Great Plains is a vast expanse of prairie and flatlands extending across the middle section of the United States.
The area is characterized by flat grasslands or rolling hills with relatively few trees.
The area has been historically used for farming, ranching, and manufacturing.
Some areas of the Great Plains are completely devoid of people, and others have just four or five per thousand square miles.
Great Plains is known as "Tornado Alley" because most of the nation’s tornadoes occur here.
The Great Plains area is the home of the American Bison. Millions once roamed here before westward expansion occurred in the 1800’s

8. Chimney Rock Chimney Rock, located in the western part of Nebraska.
The rock itself is a towering geologic formation that looks like a hill that has a chimney.
It towers some 300 feet above the North Platte River valley and lies at an elevation of 4,226 feet.
Chimney Rock was an important landmark for travelers on the Oregon, California and Mormon Trails.
It is estimated that over 500,000 travelers passed the rock on their way to destinations in the west.
Chimney Rock

10. Fort Laramie Fort Laramie, located in eastern Wyoming
Important 19th century fur trading post and U.S. military installation
During the 1850’s, it was the primary stopping point for settlers traveling on the Oregon and Mormon Trails.
Many of the Army’s military campaigns in the Indian Wars were conducted from the headquarters at the fort.
Fort Laramie

12. Rocky Mountains
The towering Rocky Mountains represented the most physically challenging portion of the trail system.
Travelers along the trail were forced to pass the Rocky Mountains in western Wyoming and Idaho, and then the Cascades Range in Oregon
Within the eastern Rockies, travelers along the Oregon Trail would pass over the Continental Divide, the "line" in which the directional flow of rivers changes.
East of the Continental Divide, water flows out to the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico
West of the line, water flows to the Pacific Ocean.

14. Fort Hall
Fort Hall was built in 1834 by fur-trapper Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth and as many as seventy other men as a point along the Snake River in which they could sell supplies to mountain men and trappers.
In 1837, Wyeth sold the fort to the Hudson Bay Company of England.
Despite the company’s attempts to discourage westward-bound travelers from stopping at the fort, wagon travel dramatically increased in the vicinity in the 1840’s
located at the junction of the Oregon and California Trails.
Fort Hall became a popular resting point for thousands of trail travelers, as well as an important trading post for the Shoshone Indians.

16. Great Basin
Encompassing the entire state of Nevada, and much of Utah, Idaho, and Oregon
The Great Basin is an arid, mountainous area in the western United States, between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Range.
The basin itself is a series of watersheds with no outlet to the sea or to a river that flows to the sea.
It consists of a series of mountain ranges in Nevada including the East Humboldt, Ruby, and White Mountains.

18. Sierra Nevada Range
The Sierra Nevada Range is almost entirely within California. Only a small section of the range lies in western Nevada
The rugged Sierra Nevada range was the last obstacle for westward travelers on the California Trail.
It was here, in November of 1846, where the Donner’s and other families (collectively known as the Donner Party) became stranded high in the mountains after a major snowfall blocked their path.

20. Sutter’s Fort
Sutter’s Fort was built in 1839 by John Sutter as an agricultural and trading colony in the Sierra Nevada Range of northern California.
It marks the final destination for California-bound travelers on the trail, as well as for fortune-seekers during the California Gold Rush of 1849.
Today, Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park lies within the city of limits of Sacramento, the capital of California. Sutter’s Fort became Sacramento in the 1850’s.
The city’s geographic location, on the junction of the Sacramento and American Rivers, made it the perfect location for the western migration of both the Pony Express and the Transcontinental Railroad

21. YOU HAVE MADE IT!!!!!