Don Wildman

Yes, it's really something that I'm much more aware of having hosted this podcast for years now of this period of time, which is a mystery to a lot of Americans, this 1820s, 30s, 40s time period, which has a lot to do with this realization that we are a difference in the world is sort of democratic answer to monarchism in Europe and all that's what's happening in Europe still.

1848 year of revolutions i'm always wondering how much though people really understood this on the ground literally on the trail it also of course becomes useful to political elites to the politicians in washington this idea of this expansionism being grabbing land essentially being part of this this moving out there and growing this nation one family at a time right

It's such a big factor in the beginnings of this nation, the foundation being laid about the middle class gaining power and being the foundation the country is built upon.

These are the things that happen.

Of course, this middle class is white males at this point, and one must recognize that.

But it's an interesting sociological standpoint about America.

And the Oregon Trail has everything to do with that.

When you would walk down one of these wagon trains, who were these people?

Who were these pioneers?

I mean, it must have been a remarkable story in the world, in Europe in particular, that this vastness of the North American continent was suddenly opening up.

to migration to settlement and and people in scandinavia and never mind ireland of course germans all had to be hearing about this as a kind of crazy phenomenon yeah and that continues through the 19th century again that just this opportunity the availability of land doesn't have any parallel in europe where most people were not going to achieve land ownership as a status

When we come back after this break, we're going to get up close and personal and talk about what life was like out on the Oregon Trail.

Hello, we're back discussing the Oregon Trail with Professor Stephen Aaron from the Autry Museum in Los Angeles.

Stephen, when we speak of the Oregon Trail, was it a singular thing or more of a general route?

What was the trail physically and geographically?

Depending on which trail you were on, I guess, generally speaking, they were all about 2,000 miles long, right?

And you would leave generally from the state of Missouri and then head northwest.

As you say, there are various routes that you could take on that thing, but it would take about four to six months.

Is that fair to say?

And I suppose the further they went, the more confirmed they were in that feeling.