lure of the gold diggings drew great hordes to California in the year 1849 and those immediately following. After the gold rush was over emigrants continued to go to the Golden State in order to develop her homely, though not less valuable resources. Cheap land served to attract the majority of the settlers of Oregon Territory;[1] religious motives, reinforced by the vision of a Garden of Eden in the midst of the desert, impelled the Mormon converts to make the long journey to the region of Great Salt Lake.[2]
Any statement of the number of people following the trail can be no more than a rough approximation, yet some such statement is necessary. On June 10, 1849, Major Cross estimated that there were about 20,000 people and 50,000 head of stock ahead of him, beyond the forks of the Platte. At Ft. Kearney, where a count was made, he learned that 4,000 wagons had preceded him on the south side of the Platte alone. Those on the north side could not be counted from the fort. A line of wagons extended up and down the river as far as he could see.[3] In the fifteen days, May 21st to June 5th, about 3,700 wagons passed Fort Kearney. At four people to the wagon this would mean nearly 15,000 people. By June 22 over 5,000 wagons had passed.[4] Very few people—about 400—went to Oregon.[5] Over 2,000 converts to Mormonism left England for Salt Lake City.[6] Of course these were not the only Mormons to cross the plains in 1849. The great majority of the migration went to California.
- ↑ Meeker, Ventures and Adventures of Ezra Meeker or Sixty Years of Frontier Life. p . 40.
- ↑ Linn, The Story of the Mormons, pp. 410-415.
- ↑ Report of Major Osborne Cross, Senate Executive Documents, 31 Cong., 2 sess., Vol. 1, Doc. 1, Ser. No. 587, pp. 148-149.
- ↑ McMaster, A History of the People of the United States, Vol. VII, pp. 601-602.
- ↑ F. G. Young, "[[../../Volume 1/The Oregon Trail|The Oregon Trail]]," The Oregon Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 1, p. 370.
- ↑ Linn, op cit., p. 416.
