OVERLAND TRAIL

OVERLAND TRAIL. Established and owned by the "Stagecoach King," Ben Holladay, the Overland Trail was a variation of the Oregon Trail. In 1862, Holladay and his Overland Stage Company were directed by the U.S. Post Office to move from the established route through Wyoming that followed the North Platte River to a different route following the South Platte. The new route had the advantage of being shorter, but it was also chosen in an effort to avoid Indian attacks that had been occurring on the Oregon Trail.

The route of the Overland Trail followed the southern bank of the South Platte River to Latham, near today's Greeley, Colorado, then went up along the Cache le Poudre River, crossed the Laramie Plains, traveled through Bridger's Pass, and rejoined the Oregon Trailat Fort Bridger. The western route out of Latham was also known as the Cherokee Trail.

While the Oregon Trail may have been more popular, the Overland Trail was not simply a detour. From 1862 to 1868, it was the only route upon which the federal government would permit travel and it served as the main highway to the west in those years. Holladay owned the Overland Stage Company until 1866 when, realizing the Transcontinental Railroad would end the need for stagecoach travel, he sold it to Wells Fargo.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Faragher, John M. Women and Men on the Overland Trail. 2d ed., New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001. The original edition was published in 1979.

GregoryMoore

See alsoCherokee Trail ; Oregon Trail ; Westward Migration .

Overland Trail any of several trails of westward migration in the United States. The term is sometimes used to mean all the trails westward from the Missouri to the Pacific and sometimes for the central trails only. Particularly, the term has been applied to a southern alternate route to the Oregon Trail used by the Overland Stage. It branched from the parent trail at the junction of the North Platte and South Platte rivers and followed the South Platte to near the present Greeley, Colo., where it left the river and went largely overland, crossing the Laramie and North Platte rivers and rejoining the parent trail east of Fort Bridger. The term is also particularly applied to a route to California that went west from Fort Bridger to the Great Salt Lake (thus duplicating in part the Mormon Trail), then on to Sutter's Fort in California; it was much used by California-bound immigrants.

Bibliography: See J. M. Faragher, Women and Men on the Overland Trail (1979); D. L. Smith, ed., Survival on a Westward Trek (1989).

Overland Trail, name given to various routes of Western migration but particularly to that which began at Independence, Mo., was for some distance identical with the Oregon Trail, branched from it to follow the South Platte River to Fort Laramie, and continued thence to the Great Salt Lake and California. This route was first traversed by Jedediah Smith in 1826, was later used by trappers, traders, and such emigrants as the Donner Party, and was a principal route during the 1849 gold rush. George R. Stewart has dealt with the westernmost section in several of his works and has written the authoritative The California Trail (1963).