Idaho, Bear Lake County, near Montpelier
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Beginning in Independence, Missouri, the Oregon/California Trail passes through present-day Missouri, Kansas, Wyoming, and Idaho. it ends in Oregon, California or Utah - depending on the destination of the pioneers.
While the Oregon/California Trail sometimes was a single trail, in many places the wagons might spread out for 1/2 mile or more to avoid dust and to find gras for their animals.
At a pace of about 20 miles a day, the westward journey took most emigrants 4-1/2 to 5 months. Nearly all pioneers departed from Missouri in April or May in order to cross the mountains of Washington, California, or Oregon before winter.
Journey Hardships and Dangers
The route west was filled with many dangers. Disease was the main killer of trail travelers. An emigrant could die in only a few hours fro disease, or linger in misery for weeks. Sometimes they received a proper burial, but often the sick would be abandoned and left on the side of the trail. It is estimated that 10,000-30,000 pioneers died of small pox, flu, measles, mumps, cholera, drowning, other accidents, and Indian encounters.
Wagon ruts and graves are still visible in many places along the trail. Be sure to visit Georgetown Summit on US 30 north of Montpelier where the trail ruts are still visible.
The National Oregon/California Trail Center
Only 7.5 miles from here at the Intersection of US 30 and US 89, The National Oregon/California Trail Center features a "Living History" experience of the overland journey from Missouri to Clover Creek. Located on the original Clover Creek Encampment site of the pioneers, visitors have an opportunity to learn more about The Oregon/California Trail and to re-live pioneer life.
(Settlements & Settlers • Roads & Vehicles) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Beginning in Independence, Missouri, the Oregon/California Trail passes through present-day Missouri, Kansas, Wyoming, and Idaho. it ends in Oregon, California or Utah - depending on the destination of the pioneers. While the Oregon/California Trail sometimes was a single trail, in many places the wagons might spread out for 1/2 mile or more to avoid dust and to find gras for their animals.
At a pace of about 20 miles a day, the westward journey took most emigrants 4-1/2 to 5 months. Nearly all pioneers departed from Missouri in April or May in order to cross the mountains of Washington, California, or Oregon before winter.
Journey Hardships and Dangers
The route west was filled with many dangers. Disease was the main killer of trail travelers. An emigrant could die in only a few hours fro disease, or linger in misery for weeks. Sometimes they received a proper burial, but often the sick would be abandoned and left on the side of the trail. It is estimated that 10,000-30,000 pioneers died of small pox, flu, measles, mumps, cholera, drowning, other accidents, and Indian encounters.
Wagon ruts and graves are still visible in many places along the trail. Be sure to visit Georgetown Summit on US 30 north of Montpelier where the trail ruts are still visible.
The National Oregon/California Trail Center
Only 7.5 miles from here at the Intersection of US 30 and US 89, The National Oregon/California Trail Center features a "Living History" experience of the overland journey from Missouri to Clover Creek. Located on the original Clover Creek Encampment site of the pioneers, visitors have an opportunity to learn more about The Oregon/California Trail and to re-live pioneer life.
(Settlements & Settlers • Roads & Vehicles) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
On the hot afternoon of August 23, 1896, Butch Cassidy with two members of his Wild Bunch Gang, Elza Lay and Bob Meeks, robbed The Bank of Montpelier which was originally located in the building across the street from this sign.
Welcome to the Historic Downtown Montpelier Business District on Washington Street! 
Bank of Montpelier's Impact on Local Banking History 
The streetscape of Montpelier has changed through the years. The early years of this Oregon Trail town began with only horse power including wagons and horseback. Streets were packed dirt with hitching posts. With the advent of the horseless carriage at the turn of the 19th century, Montpelier upgraded the downtown to embrace the popularity of the automotive age. Gone were the days of hitching posts and in their places were street lamps, sidewalks and curbs. 
The residents of Norton honor the men and women who served so valiantly and honorably in the Armed Forces of the United States of America.
1937 - 2007
Mayfield's first school built in 1855 it was a two-room log cabin which was soon outgrown. Mayfield later built two new schools to serve the increasing population of young people and even offered some adult education in mathematics. In 1923, on the site of these playing fields, construction began on "Mayfield's finest public building," the new Mayfield grammar school designed by architect Henry C. Smith. The Japanese Association of Mayfield did the landscaping. Students from Walter Hays School helped as safety patrol until Mayfield students could be trained to assist - in crossing the "dangerous state highway," today's El Camino Real. The community took pride in the beautiful Spanish Colonial style school building which was in use as an elementary school until 1966. From 1966 to the 1980's, the building housed a variety of educational programs. Mayfield School was demolished in 1982, due to seismic concerns and school population shifts.
Norton. Norton has produced important musicians for a
century. Songwriter and ballad singer Kate O’Neill
(later Kate Peters Sturgill) grew up here, began a
string band in 1914, taught hundreds to play guitar,
and was a pioneer on radio. Norton barber Byrd
Moore was a premier country guitarist of the 1920s,
recording with a half dozen prominent bands.
Long before Stanford University and the City of Palo Alto existed, this area of the Mexican land grant, Rancho Rincon de San Francisquito Creek was a crossroads of travel and commerce. In the 1850's, it would take Juana Briones three days to travel in a wooden cart from here to San Francisco to deliver cattle hides. In the dry season, the route was through the flat lands (roughly following the current El Camino Real), but in the rainy season, creek crossings higher in the foothills were used. On early maps, El Camino Real was called "County Road" and then "State Highway" until about 1926. 
The town sprang up after the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and Southern Railroad made a junction here in 1890. Named for the Appalachian Mountains, in the heart of which it stands, it was incorporated in 1906; the streets were laid out in 1907. Appalachia, in the Jefferson National Forest area, is the trading center of the Wise coal fields.
This was the site of the Gilley famly farm,
settled by John and Mary Barger Gilley about
1790. The family cemetery was located just
south at the end of Graveyard Alley. Named
Imboden after Brig. Gen. John D. Imboden when
it was laid out on parts of the
Gilley,
Horton, and Flanary farms, the town
was incorporated on 7 Apr. 1882 as Mineral City.
Its name was changed to Big Stone Gap on 23 Feb. 1888, when the town boundaries were enlarged.
Soon, as several railroads converged here, the town grew due to the importance of the iron and
coal mining industries.
This museum is located in a mansion built by
lawyer and industrialist Rufus Ayers, Virginia
attorney general in the 1880s.
Newman and her brother, C. Bascom Slemp, former U.S. Congressman and private secretary
to President Calvin Coolidge,
assembled the
initial collection of artifacts
on display.
Slemp bequeathed the
collection to the
Commonwealth of Virginia in 1946 and the
Southwest Virginia Museum opened to the
public in 1948. The museum chronicles the development of Southwest Virginia and presents
a picture of life in the past.
