The Fremont Trail, or more correctly the route that John C Fremont took in 1843, had a direct connection with the Oregon Trail . The following are class notes from one of my Oregon History classes: Western explorer, soldier and political leader. Fremont attended Charleston College from 1829-31. He served as a mathematics teacher on board a ship, but refused a US Navy appointment in 1838. In 1838 Fremont became a second lieutenant in the US Army Bureau of Topographical Engineers Corps to assist with railroad surveys. Survey explorations included the Des Moines River and the head waters of the Mississippi River. He married the daughter of Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, namesake of Benton Counties Oregon and Washington. Sen. Benton was a strong advocate of Oregon Territory. Jessie Benton Fremont accompanied her husband on all of his surveys. She was invaluable as a recorder of his journals and mapmaker. With a federal grant he crossed the Rockies for the first time in 1842. In 1843 he headed a survey party of 40 people into the Oregon Country. He overtook and passed the 1843 "Great Migration" en route. Mapmaker Charles Preuss was with Fremont and later published a set of seven maps that became route maps of the Oregon Trail. Fremont's 1842-44 expeditions were considered the most spectacular since Lewis and Clark. One thousand copies of Jessie Fremont's report were printed and distributed under her husband's name. After visiting Fort Vancouver Fremont returned to The Dalles. He reached The Dalles November 5, 1843. (The Great Migration got there in October.) He then turned south. Paralleling the modern route of US 97 (closer to the Cascades), he mapped the Fremont Trail. That trail was to be used as a dry route to and from California. In 1845 and on into 1846, during the US-Mexican War, Fremont again entered California, this time to rid it of Mexicans. Some Oregon expatriates, who abandoned the Willamette Valley when they could not affect an independent government, had successfully overthrown the Mexican capital in Monterey. Fremont arrived there in 1847 and assumed control in the name of the US government and handed California over to General Kearney upon his arrival. He was one of California's first two Senators in 1850. In 1856 he was an anti-slavery candidate for President, but failed to get the nomination. During the Civil War he served as a Major-General in the Union army. He was Territorial Governor of Arizona from 1878-81. He retired to California. He died while visiting New York. jim