12. Which is Older: The Oregon Trail, or the Fax Machine?
The roughly 2200 mile long Oregon Trail connected the Missouri River to Oregon. It began as rough tracks and trails blazed and cleared through the wilderness by fur traders, in progressive stages, between 1811 to 1840. Initially, the segments were only passable to travelers on foot or horseback.
By 1836, the trail section between Independence, Missouri, and Fort Hall, Idaho, had been cleared to accommodate wagons, and the first migrant wagon train made that journey. Thereafter, wagon trails were gradually cleared westward, until, in 1843, they reached the Willamette Valley in Oregon. From then on, the wagon route came to be known as the Oregon Trail. Is it older than the fax machine?