The Oregon and California Trails were pathways to the Pacific for fur traders, gold seekers, missionaries, and emigrants. For 20 years, beginning in 1841, an estimated 300,00 emigrants followed this route from the Midwest to fertile Oregon farmlands or California gold fields on trips that took five months to complete. From 182 to 1848, the Santa Fe Trail was an international road for American and Mexican traders. In 1848, the Mexican-American War ended, and New Mexico was added to the United States. The trail then became a national road for commercial and military freighting, stagecoach travel, emigration, and mail service, before being replaced over time by the westward-expanding railroad, which reached Santa Fe in 1880.
