Interactive Trail

Online adventures on the Oregon Trail

Take a Virtual Tour on the 19th Century Overland Trails

Have you have ever thought about throwing all of your possessions into the back of your car and heading out for parts unknown? If so, then you already know the feeling that propelled hundreds of thousands of emigrants westward in the mid-1800s.

For thirty springs, emigrants gathered at points along the great Mississippi water line dividing the Midwest, forming into wagon trains to head out onto the prairie. They followed river valleys through what is now Kansas and Nebraska, ventured onto the dry hills of Wyoming, then split off toward Utah and California or Oregon and Washington in Idaho. It was a six-month journey, with hard traveling in deserts and over treacherous mountains and roiling rivers, before they reached their destinations.

Today many of us are captivated by that amazing mass emigration, and seek ways to understand what our forebears experienced. Two dozen students and three teachers took on the challenge of raising their awareness, when they dressed as the pioneers did, and traveled by wagon train on the Oregon Trail from Wyoming to Oregon. The documentary, “In Pursuit of a Dream,” shares their remarkable experiences.

Check the interactive map of the trails to locate the routes our “dreamers” followed, and find site information and images of special points along the way. Then plan your own great journey along the emigrant trails!