Between the 1830s and the late 1860s, as many as 350,000 men, women, and children traveled the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California trails in search of purpose, wealth, or a better life in the West. Mexican and American traders and freighters carried valuable commodities along the Santa Fe Trail, and during the Mexican War of 1846-1848 thousands of U.S. Army soldiers used the trail in connection with territorial disputes. Stories brought back in the 1820s and 1830s by trappers and mountain men returning from the Rocky Mountains told of fertile land, abundant game, and extraordinary wonders, encouraging many after the financial depression of 1837 to leave failed farms and businesses for a new start in the Oregon Territory. In the fall of 1831, a small group of Nez Perce and Flathead Indians traveled to St. Louis to visit Indian Commissioner William Clark, prompting eastern missionaries to establish mission outposts in the Northwest among various tribes. After gold was discovered in California, motivations shifted again as tens of thousands of emigrants hurried along an expanding network of trails and shortcuts to reach the gold fields. Some never found the futures they sought, and nearly ten percent of Oregon and California Trail travelers died from accidents, attacks, or illness and were buried along the way, but most completed the journey.