the American fur trappers and explorers who began to explore and move west.

a temporary market where trappers met to trade and socialize.

to add

a mass departure.

United States religious leader of the Mormon Church after the assassination of Joseph Smith.

Mountain man; first white man to enter California by land; discovered the South Pass, a wagon route from Wyoming to Oregon. He explored more unknown territory in the West than any other single person.

(1809-1868) United States frontiersman who guided Fremont's expeditions in the 1840s and served as a Union general in the Civil War.

Legendary trapper who was born into slavery. After being set free he discovered a mountain pass through the Sierra Nevada which settlers followed to get into Northern California.

newspaper editor who coined the term "manifest destiny"

discovered the headwaters of the Arkansas River and was one of the first white men to explore the wilderness of Colorado.

an important trade route going between Independence, Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

overland route that connects Santa Fe, New Mexico to Los Angeles, California.

2,170 mile long path along which thousands of Americans journeyed from Independence, Missouri to Fort Vancouver in Oregon Country.

In 1847, about 1,600 Mormons made an exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah along this route which mirrors the Oregon Trail for long stretches.

a member of the Pueblo people living in western New Mexico.

Native American tribe of the Pacific Northwest.

Native American tribe that lived in the interior of the United States (the Great Plains).

the high point in the Rocky Mountains that divides the watersheds of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

a settler moving to a new and unfamiliar land.

a common method of transportation to the West, in which wagons traveled in groups for safety.

the idea that the United States had the right and the obligation to expand its territory across North America to the Pacific Ocean.