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The Oregon Trail, the original route across the western territories for travelers bound from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Northwest (and later, to California), carried several hundred thousand people who could not afford the rates for ship-board passage, or who wished to carry with them more equipment, furniture, and supplies than could otherwise be transported. So the Oregon Trail became the transcontinental lifeline for twenty years, beginning in the late 1840s, and extending in time until the completion of the Union Pacific route in 1869. These ruts, cuts into stone by the wheels of the Oregon Trail traveller's wagons, are a testament both the number of people, and the difficulty of their trip.
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