Fifth Grade
Worksheets
Oregon National Historic Trail
In our country's past, many people moved west. Some went on the Oregon Trail. The trail is very long. It covers over 2,000 miles! Today, a lot of the trail is marked. It is called the Oregon National Historic Trail. It crosses six states. It began in Independence, Missouri. It crosses into Kansas. It heads north to Nebraska. Then it moves northwest through Wyoming. It heads west into Idaho. It ends in Oregon.
The story of the Oregon Trail begins about two hundred years ago. The area was called Oregon Country. Lewis and Clark explored some of this area. Their route was too rough. Most settlers couldn't travel on it. In 1810, the first wagons set out. They used a trail from Missouri to Oregon. They showed that you could reach the west by wagon. In the 1840s, thousands went west. The settlers had many reasons for going. Some wanted cheap land. Others went to be good citizens. Some wanted to find a better life.
