The Rise and Fall of the Oregon Trail
On May 1 , 1839 , 17 men leave the courthouse square in Peoria , Illinois . Their end was totravel beyond the Rocky Mountainsand settle the Oregon Country , a dispute soil that encompassed present - day Oregon , Idaho , Washington state and British Columbia . precede by an attorney named Thomas J. Farnham , this little party carried a flag that read"Oregon or the grave . "...