Route across the Rocky Mountains

the long version

"In the 1840's in the farmhouses of Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa excitement about a new frontier in the far west was causing much talk. Soon "Oregon fever" was running high and emigrants were discussing the best way of getting to the new promised land on the Pacific coast... By 1843 a great wave of emigration had set in, and wagon trains were stretched out along the "Oregon Trail" all the way from Independence Missouri... to the Columbia River. Two of the participants in the great migration of 1843 were Overton Johnson and William H. Winter, who wrote a narrative of their journey and a description of the country for the benefit of future travelers"--Foreward.