The 1924 Oregon Trail and Columbia River Highway Guide Book
Material courtesy Jeffrey A. Fox - 2022

The Old Oregon Trail is the World's Most Historic Highway. it was the route of the home-seeker and home-builder, the route over which the "Oregon Country," consisting of the present states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming was saved to the United States. The first wagon train from old Fort Hall, near the present site of Pocatello, Idaho, reached the Willamette Valley in 1843, and was followed by a continuous procession of covered wagons for many years.

Every mile of the old Trail is filled with history, sentiment and tragedy. When we consider the condition of the Trail today as compared to what it was in the early days, we marvel at the courage, endurance and faith of the hardy pioneer men and women who blazed the Way. About 8 months was spent in the journey from Missouri River points to the Pacific Coast while now the same journey in 1924 was completed in about 8 days. Today the journey from Independence, MO to Oregon City, OR will take a motorist about 27 hours, and by commercial airliner a mere 5 hours.

The principal outfitting places in the old days was Independence, Mo., and Kanesville, now Council Bluffs, Iowa. The route traversed the length of the states of Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon, a distance over half of that across the continent. In 1850 with the signing of the Donation Land Claim Act many continued their journey northward from Oregon to the unsettled wilderness of Washington. The Old Oregon Trail was the most direct route from the East to the Pacific Northwest. By the 1880's most of the old route had been abandoned and by the 1920's a new highway followed closely to the route leading through populated and cultivated lands. It is a route of scenic beauty unsurpassed for grandeur and variety, leading into America's Scenic Wonderland, the Great Pacific Northwest.

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