13. The Oregon Trail Begins to Grow Before the First Wagon Train Leaves for Settlement
Stops along the Oregon Trail for supplies were springing up in the 1820s. Fort Vancouver was one of the first areas established on the Columbia River by the Hudson’s Bay Company. It was this area that would quickly become a prominent trading post. In 1827, Independence, Missouri was established. This city would become the original starting point of the Santa Fe Trail, which would branch off from the Oregon Trail for those who would decide to head to California instead of Oregon Territory.
Then in the early 1830s, 110 soldiers and a United States Military Officer were sent to test the trail. These men knew that they might not make it back and were prepared for nearly any situation because no one was genuinely sure if anyone would be able to make the trail in ox-drawn wagons. Their journey ended just southeastern of Washington, which was just a little short of their goal. Nonetheless, this inspired another group that the trip could be made. It was not too long after the United States Military trip that missionaries started to make their way along the Oregon Trail.
The goal of the missionaries was to try to convert the Native American to Christianity. By 1834, a small group of ministers had formed a community in northwestern Oregon. Of course, the only people in this group were males because, at the time, people were still unsure that women and children would be able to handle the trail. However, this all changed two years later when two female missionaries, Eliza Spalding and Narcissa Whitman, proved that women would be able to handle the trip when they reached Oregon. This action also made these two women the first white women to cross the Rockies and reach Oregon territory.
By the time the first pioneer wagon train left in 1841, there were several stops along the Oregon Trail which were often used as supply stops. Over time these stops would also become areas where the Oregon Trail would branch off into other trails, such as the Santa Fe Trail towards California. Some of these stops were Independence Rock, Fort Hall, Fort Laramie, and Soda Springs. Without these early travelers along the Oregon Trail, there would not have been as many supplies stop as there were for the pioneers who traveled the trails during the 1840s and into the 1850s.