Category Archives: Oregon Trail

The American founding of Oregon—in myth and fact

Posted on September 24, 2023 by Bennett Minton

The martyrdom of Marcus Whitman, like the nobility of the Lost Cause, was taught to American school children for a century. The thumbnail of the story: The doctor/preacher convinced a president to safeguard Oregon for the United States rather than … Continue reading →

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The Oregon Trail in 63 photos

Posted on December 25, 2021 by Bennett Minton

To complement the narratives I posted here over the fall, I selected 63 shots from my drive east from Portland to Independence, Missouri, sometimes more and other times less following the Oregon Trail, in reverse. The Trail, which branched into … Continue reading →

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Eastward Ho—to Independence

Posted on November 8, 2021 by Bennett Minton

The second half of my Oregon Trail journey, west to east, began at Riverton, Wyoming, on the Mississippi side of the Continental Divide, where the Rendezvous of 1838 took place. The Rendezvous was an annual convention in the wilderness for … Continue reading →

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At South Pass on the Oregon Trail

Posted on October 27, 2021 by Bennett Minton

I had imagined this day as the climax of my Oregon Trail-in-reverse, the one on which I would cross the Continental Divide at South Pass, the 20-mile-wide flat in the Wyoming Rockies that trapper Robert Stuart “discovered” in 1812 and … Continue reading →

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The Oregon Trail, updated

Posted on October 17, 2021 by Bennett Minton

As a history student and native of the South, I’ve spent most of my life immersed in our Peculiar region, the soil in which the blood of Black and White was mixed. The foundation of American capitalism was slavery, and … Continue reading →

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