Pioneers travel across the Oregon Trail, one of the main overland migration routes on the North American continent, in wagons in order to settle new parts of the United States of America during the 19th century.

The Oregon Trail helps the United States implement its cultural goal, stated in the 1840s, of Manifest Destiny, that is, to expand the nation from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

The five to six month journey spans over half the continent as the wagon trail proceeds 2,170 miles (3,500 kilometers) west through territories and land later to become six U.S. states (Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington).

Between 1841 and 1869, the Oregon Trail is used by settlers migrating to the Pacific Northwest of what is now the United States.

Once the first transcontinental railroad is completed in 1869, the use of this trail by long distance travelers diminishes as the railroad slowly replaces it.