01Summary
The river Oregon Trail wagons followed for about 300 miles, from Fort Hall across southern Idaho to Farewell Bend in Oregon. Much of the way it ran deep in a canyon of black rock, so thirsty people and animals could see the water but could not reach it.
02History
The Snake River begins on the Two Ocean Plateau, just inside Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. It flows more than 1,000 miles, across southern Idaho, north along the Idaho and Oregon line through Hells Canyon, and on to Pasco, Washington, where it joins the Columbia. It is the Columbia's biggest branch.
The name comes from the 'Snake' Indians, as white Americans called the Shoshone people, perhaps because of a hand sign. Emigrants also knew it as Lewis's Fork. Its rapids and falls were so wild that French-Canadian trappers called it 'the accursed mad river.'
Most wagon trains leaving Fort Hall turned west along the south side of the Snake. In 1843 Marcus Whitman rode ahead of the Great Migration from Fort Hall, marking a route for the wagons. The road crossed dusty sagebrush flats and sharp lava rock, while the river ran far below in a canyon of black basalt.
That fall John C. Frémont's survey party measured the river at one spot at 1,786 feet wide, with banks 200 feet high. Polly Coon wrote in 1852 that 'the thirsty animals are obliged to toil for miles together in the heat & dust with the sound of water in their ears & neither man or beast able to get a drop.'
At Three Island Crossing about half the emigrants forded to the north bank. The rest stayed on the south side, a rougher and drier road called the South Alternate. North-side travelers crossed the Snake one last time near Fort Boise. All along the river, Shoshone and Bannock people fished for salmon.
In 1843 Frémont saw fishermen 'strung along the river at every little rapid where fish are to be caught.' Emigrants sick of bacon and beans traded clothing and other goods for fish. At Farewell Bend, in Oregon, the trail left the river for good.
03Today
Dams and irrigation canals have tamed the Snake, but the problem the emigrants faced is still easy to see. From the Perrine Bridge at Twin Falls the river runs nearly 500 feet below the rim, in plain sight and far out of reach.
04People connected here
05Stops nearby
The Oregon Trail ran about 2,170 miles from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City. The stops just before and after this one are below. You can also follow the whole route on the interactive map.