19th Century Interstate Highway

19th Century Interstate Highway. The Lander Trail. The Lander Trail, part of the Congressionally designated California National Historic Trail, was a shortcut of the main emigrant trails to California and Oregon, as well as to the new gold fields in Montana and Idaho. Emigrants started their journeys from towns on the Missouri River and headed west through Kansas and Nebraska. Reaching Wyoming they ascended the Continental Divide about halfway along their five to six mont journey where they could take the new Lander's Cut-off Road (Lander Trail) at South Pass. , Expanding a Nation . Oregon and California Trails . From 1841 to 1869 about 350,000 people emigrated west on undeveloped wagon roads - the greatest voluntary mass migration in US history. To appease public outcry for improved transportation to the Pacific Coast, Congress passed the Pacific Wagon Road Act of 1857. Twelve years later the completion of the transcontinental railroad signaled the end of the emigrant trail era. , Faster, Shorter, Safer . The Lander Trail . The Pacific Wagon Road Act helped fund a new 256-mile cutoff between South Pass, Wyoming and Fort Hall, Idaho. In 1858, Frederick Lander supervised the construction of this new road - one of the first federal funded roads in the West, Emigrants could save up to seven days travel, avoiding long desert crossings. Ten of thousands of emigrants traveled the Lander trail from 1859 to 1869. , An Oasis in the Sagebrush . New Fork River . Emigrants risked losing supplies, livestock, and even their lives here at the New Fork River - one of the most difficult river crossings on the Lander Trail. Despite these challenges, lush grass and cottonwood trees provided a brief oasis for weary travelers who had just crossed over the Continental Divide. Good camping and the bottleneck at the river crossing made this place one of the busiest on the trail.