When did the trains come to Oregon and people quit using covered wagons? Doneva my entire genealogy database, 45,000+ names http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=donevanell (be sure entire URL fits in your Address bar) --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - live college hoops coverage

At 06:18 PM 3/14/02 -0800, Doneva Shepard wrote: > When did the trains come to Oregon and people quit using covered wagons? >Doneva Although the country was "connected coast to coast" in 1869, that connection led to California. The next transcontinental connection wasn't until 1881, and that also led to California. I believe train lines didn't begin to appear in Oregon and Washington until the 1890s, so anyone traveling directly to those places most likely used the Oregon Trail. I remember seeing a message a few years ago about people traveling the Oregon Trail, presumably by wagon, as late as 1914 or 1924. Beth Perry Johnston

Hi Beth and others, The train came to this little - 1500 population - town of Pomeroy, in southeastern Washington in 1886. I know that for sure because the line was taken out in 1986, exactly 100 years after the beginning. This line came out of Walla Walla but there was also a line that ran up the Snake River to Lewiston, ID and I don't know what year that one was built. At one time there was a plan to run the Pomeroy line across the Alpowaii summit to connect with the Lewiston line but it never happened. It would be interesting to find out just when the last wagon train came west. Shirley Johnson ----- Original Message ----- > At 06:18 PM 3/14/02 -0800, Doneva Shepard wrote: > > > When did the trains come to Oregon and people quit using covered wagons? > >Doneva > > Although the country was "connected coast to coast" in 1869, that > connection led to California. The next transcontinental connection wasn't > until 1881, and that also led to California. I believe train lines didn't > begin to appear in Oregon and Washington until the 1890s, so anyone > traveling directly to those places most likely used the Oregon Trail. > > I remember seeing a message a few years ago about people traveling the > Oregon Trail, presumably by wagon, as late as 1914 or 1924. > > Beth Perry Johnston >

Hi Doneva... I hope you get some other more precise answers from this..... my "top of the head" answer is that the UP RR went across the US in 1868, but it was a long time before all the little towns and other places had some sort of public transportation. The "feeder" stage routes sprung up to the towns and far out places that emigrants wanted to go to, but still there were folks who couldn't afford the train or stage, and relied upon the covered wagon. I'm not sure about covered wagons, but I do know that regular stage routes were still running up until about 1920 in the northwest.... Oregon, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, Northern California, etc. Liz ----- Original Message ----- From: "Doneva Shepard" <donevas@yahoo.com> To: <OREGON-TRAIL-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2002 7:18 PM Subject: Trains > > When did the trains come to Oregon and people quit using covered wagons? > Doneva > > > > my entire genealogy database, 45,000+ names > http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=donevanell > (be sure entire URL fits in your Address bar) > > > > --------------------------------- > Do You Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Sports - live college hoops coverage >

> When did the trains come to Oregon and people quit using covered wagons? >Doneva You are actually asking too, relatively unrelated questions. The first trains to Oregon did not end the use of covered wagons. Not everyone could afford passage for their families and belongings. All of the answers you got assumed the first trains to Oregon were transcontinentals from the east. The first train in Oregon was the Oregon Pony, now on display at Cascade Locks, on the portage railroad around the Cascades of the Columbia. The Pony replaced mule powered railroads in 1862. Portage railroads were in Oregon since 1850. The first railroad to connect Oregon with the rest of the nation began in Portland in 1865. It was originally called the California and Oregon but was reorganized in 1868 as the Oregon and California. The intent was to connect with the central Pacific at Sacramento. It reached Oregon City Dec 31, 1869. It gained a new owner, Ben Holladay, in 1870. It stalled at Roseburg in 1873 following a major US depression. To preserve the investments of a group of German investors, Henry Villard was sent to the US. He developed a fund called the Blind Trust to purchase several lines, including the Northern Pacific, O&CRR, Central Pacific and Southern Pacific. The O&C linked with the Southern Pacific near Ashland at Siskyou Summit in 1887. The first railroad to Oregon from the east, and more closely linked to the demise of the Oregon Trail was the Oregon Short Line, a subsidiary of the Union Pacific headed by EH Harriman, starting at Granger, Wyoming, in 1883. Utilizing previous routes including the Walla Walla Railroad, the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, a subsidiary of Villard's Northern Pacific, started in Portland. The two railroads met at Huntington, Oregon, in 1884. Other railroads including the Oregon Central (1863 RR that merged into the O&C), Oregon Trunk (1908-1911 Wishram to Bend and later Klamath Falls and the SP at Weed, Calif) and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle (SP&S, 1912 Columbia River north bank RR) linked Oregon with the rest of the world. Famous names in Oregon railroading: Ben Holladay, Henry Villard, EH Harriman, James J Hill, Sam Hill -- Jim Tompkins Beavercreek, Oregon Oregon History Instructor: Clackamas Community College Adult Education History Research: Oregon History, Oregon Trail, Barlow Road Author: Spirits of the Oregon Trail, Discovering Laurel Hill, The Road to Oregon, The City at Willamette Falls Board member: Oregon Trail Foundation (End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center) Sons and Daughters of Oregon Pioneers, Beavercreek United Church of Christ Northwest Chapter of the Oregon-California Trails Assn. (Vice President) http://www.rutnut.com

At 06:18 PM 3/14/02 -0800, Doneva Shepard wrote: > When did the trains come to Oregon and people quit using covered wagons? >Doneva Okay, version 2, or 3, My previous answer suggested that the first transcontinental connection to Portland had become a part of the UP RR. UP railroad may have designs on the entire rail network, but they haven't bought Burlington Northern Santa Fe, yet. So, the Old Great Northern route is BNSF and not UP, yet. Stafford