Following in footsteps — or wagon ruts — of American history on Oregon Trail
by Terri Colby, Chicago Tribune
Jun 18, 2018
4 minutes
A cold wind from the Blue Mountains carries the scent of sagebrush as it whips your face. Each step stirs dust on the dry path in this high desert plateau in eastern Oregon, where hundreds of thousands of American pioneers walked, changing the course of history.
A roadside sign beneath Flagstaff Hill points the way to this path, where you can walk in the actual ruts made during the mid-1800s by the wagon trains on the Oregon Trail.
The sage and other brush along the trail may have thinned or thickened over time, but the vista is undoubtedly the same as that seen by the adventurers
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