In 1848, an emigrant named Peter Lassen branched south off of the Applegate Trail to reach his northern California ranch. That same year, another group from the Willamette Valley in Oregon opened a southerly route into Oregon that became known as the Applegate Trail. One of those late-starting parties was the ill-fated Donner-Reed party. Late the next summer about 80 wagons of late-starting emigrants tried Fremont's new route. Fremont, guided by Kit Carson, explored a new route across the Great Basin in 1845. The next spring they returned to Donner Lake and retrieved their wagons. They left some wagons at Donner Lake and made the rest of the journey on foot. They traveled the Truckee Route across the Sierra Nevadas and got caught by winter weather. The first group to reach California and take their wagons the whole distance was the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy party of 1844. The California Trail wound along beside the Humboldt River in central Nevada In November of that year, 39 of them reached California. They ended up abandoning their wagons even before they reached the Humboldt River in Nevada, having loaded every necessity they could onto their livestock. The others headed southwest into the north end of the Great Salt Lake Desert and struggled mightily to reach their goal. At that point, some of them elected to go on to Oregon over that established trail instead. ![]() They left Missouri with 69 people and reasonably easily reached Soda Springs, Idaho (following the Oregon Trail to that point). The first recorded party to make the journey and reach California was the Bidwell-Bartleson party in 1841. From that point on, the rope became frayed again with many different cutoffs and variations being introduced the closer one got to California. These eastern routes all came together near Fort Kearny on the Platte River in Nebraska and then led west to a place in Wyoming known as Parting of the Ways. ![]() ![]() The eastern end of the Trail began in several places, mostly along the Missouri River. The California Trail has often been likened to a rope frayed at both ends.
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