# Why did the Oregon Trail go right through perfectly fine farmland? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 6, 2024, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-oregon-trail-go-right-through-perfectly-fine-farmland/997165 "2024-02-06T03:03:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-oregon-trail-go-right-through-perfectly-fine-farmland/997165/21 "2024-02-07T01:30:58Z")
Are you here to learn, or argue? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-oregon-trail-go-right-through-perfectly-fine-farmland/997165/22 "2024-02-07T01:31:54Z")
The land belonged to the Federal government, and every attempt by them to get people onto it was obstructed by Southern congressmen who feared the new lands would grow populations that would outvote slavery. They were no longer a factor in the issue in 1862 when Lincoln signed the Homestead Act that gave farmland away for free if the homesteader stuck it out for five years ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-oregon-trail-go-right-through-perfectly-fine-farmland/997165/23 "2024-02-07T01:35:34Z")
Then, also, in 1849, 50, and some in 51, people on the trail wanted to get to California, because they were sure they’d find gold. The Gold Rush didn’t account for 100% of the early travelers of the trail, but it was no myth, and many, many people were headed to California or Bust. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-oregon-trail-go-right-through-perfectly-fine-farmland/997165/24 "2024-02-07T16:42:32Z")
I’ve heard apocryphally that the Texas Panhandle (the southern end of the Great Plains) was only really opened up for agriculture with the invention and widespread use of the Aermotor style windmill (the “classic” agricultural windmill) to pump groundwater up for irrigation purposes. And with the depletion of the aquifer, it seems that a lot of that land is returning, or about to return to being what amounts to grazing land for cattle. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-oregon-trail-go-right-through-perfectly-fine-farmland/997165/25 "2024-02-07T17:42:39Z")
**Moderator Note** > [@gnoitall](#): > > Are you here to learn, or argue? Attack the post, not the poster. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-oregon-trail-go-right-through-perfectly-fine-farmland/997165/26 "2024-02-07T17:52:15Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I’ve heard apocryphally that the Texas Panhandle (the southern end of the Great Plains) was only really opened up for agriculture with the invention and widespread use of the Aermotor style windmill (the “classic” agricultural windmill) to pump groundwater up for irrigation purposes. Being smack in the middle of the _Comancheria_ was likely a mighty disincentive as well. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-oregon-trail-go-right-through-perfectly-fine-farmland/997165/27 "2024-02-07T23:42:22Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > As non-North American can you put this into context for me: > > How many days travel did it take them to get the perfectly fine Nebraska farmland from back East? > > Where was the nearest port / railhead / major town to which they could send their produce? A lot of settlers headed west started out from St. Louis (hence the term “gateway to the west” for that city, and what their big Arch is supposed to symbolize). Wagon travel from the St. Louis vicinity to the cities on the other side of the Rockies like San Fransisco and various points in Oregon typically took 4 months, traveling approximately 24 km per day (15 miles for the American audience). So… probably around two months to get to Nebraska from St. Louis. I just further note that St. Louis is on the west bank of the Mississippi River. To get to St. Louis from points further east could be done by train in some cases, in others the roads were better established than out west so there would still be weeks of travel if you were coming from the east coast but couldn’t take a train, but not so arduous. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-oregon-trail-go-right-through-perfectly-fine-farmland/997165/28 "2024-02-07T23:50:49Z")
And they had better reach [Independence Rock](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Rock) in Wyoming by Independence Day, or else they’d be trapped in the Sierras when winter arrived ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2024, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-oregon-trail-go-right-through-perfectly-fine-farmland/997165/29 "2024-02-08T00:24:59Z")
Many replies have focused on the Homestead Act of 1862, which isn’t hugely relevant. Settlers had been advancing the midwestern farm frontier westward _for decades_ in the absence of homesteading. You had to pay for land, but there were plenty of willing buyers. The more relevant point is that until the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, you couldn’t legally own land in Nebraska _at all_–not at any price. It was still held by Indian nations. You could squat, but that was a very insecure way of life and as noted above, the natives were still numerous enough in 1850’s Nebraska to make life miserable for isolated squatters. The KNA opened Kansas and Nebraska to forced “land cessions” from the Indians and white land purchase, and at that point traffic over the Oregon Trail did indeed see a marked decrease lasting several years, for the reasons given in the OP. The land and rainfall in eastern Kansas and Nebraska aren’t hugely different from Iowa and Missouri, and the land was attractive. There was a resurgence in traffic to Oregon during the Civil War, when many people wanted to get as far from the fighting as possible. Missouri was especially disordered and trouble sometimes spilled over the border. After the war, the railroads gradually reduced the trail to irrelevance. But the short answer to “why didn’t people just settle in Nebraska”, at least during the 1842-54 heyday of the Oregon Trail, is that they couldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2024, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-oregon-trail-go-right-through-perfectly-fine-farmland/997165/30 "2024-02-08T02:59:02Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I just further note that St. Louis is on the west bank of the Mississippi River. To get to St. Louis from points further east could be done by train in some cases, in others the roads were better established than out west so there would still be weeks of travel if you were coming from the east coast but couldn’t take a train, but not so arduous. There were no bridges over the MIssissippi at the time, so everyone coming from the east had to take a boat across. And for that matter, most coming from the east took a boat down the Ohio and then up the Mississippi to get to St Louis. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2024, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-oregon-trail-go-right-through-perfectly-fine-farmland/997165/31 "2024-02-08T03:36:52Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > A lot of settlers headed west started out from St. Louis (hence the term “gateway to the west” for that city, and what their big Arch is supposed to symbolize). Wagon travel from the St. Louis vicinity to the cities on the other side of the Rockies like San Fransisco and various points in Oregon typically took 4 months, traveling approximately 24 km per day (15 miles for the American audience). So… probably around two months to get to Nebraska from St. Louis. In the 1840s heyday of migration via the Oregon Trail, most settlers would take steamboats up the Missouri to Independence or Council Bluffs (then Kanesville) in Iowa. That was pretty near the head of navigation, so further progress had to go overland. Call it a few days to a week, give or take, from St. Louis. Once there, they would make their final purchases and usually join a group of fellow settlers to form a wagon train and hire a guide. So St. Louis was the gateway, but the jumping-off points were generally further west. Railroads didn’t make it west of the MIssissippi until the 1850s, so most transportation to the start of the trail was by steamboat. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2024, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-oregon-trail-go-right-through-perfectly-fine-farmland/997165/32 "2024-02-08T07:19:53Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > A lot of settlers headed west started out from St. Louis (hence the term “gateway to the west” for that city, and what their big Arch is supposed to symbolize). Wagon travel from the St. Louis vicinity to the cities on the other side of the Rockies like San Fransisco and various points in Oregon typically took 4 months, traveling approximately 24 km per day (15 miles for the American audience). So… probably around two months to get to Nebraska from St. Louis. Thank you. So while it may have been a fertile paradise, it was a fertile paradise two months travel from the nearest point of access to a market. That is a big disincentive for anyone wanting to do more than subsistence farming. To be fair, that is not a long cattle drive (at least in Australia), but if you want to grow and sell crops its a long, sloooooow trip to sell anything. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-oregon-trail-go-right-through-perfectly-fine-farmland/997165.md?page=1)