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HOW TO USE THIS SITE
The Time Frame is about 100 pages long and mixes descriptions of important events and people with details, trivia, and a list of sources. There's a minimum of interpretation (why and how) and a lot of who, when, what, and where.
If you have a specific YEAR in mind, just scroll down to the year you want. Or jump off onto the Oregon Trail and browse: Lewis and Clark arrived in 1805, Russians and Aleuts in 1808, shipwrecked Japanese sailors in 1833, the first wagon train in 1841....
If you have a NAME in mind but don't know the year, there are two ways to go ahead. You could identify the year with the "Find" feature on your web browser/navigator. On Netscape, for instance, open the "Edit" menu at the top of the page. Then choose "Find in Page". You'll see a place to type in the name you want to research. Your browser/navigator then will automatically take you to the first place in the Time Frame where that name appears. For example, if you typed "Daniel Boone," your browser would automatically take you to 1811, on page 14 of the Time Frame. Before you begin your search you need to enter the Oregon Trail (just click "Oregon Trail" at the bottom of this page).
Another way to identify the year is to go to Stephenie Flora's Oregon Pioneers web site. At this site you'll find lists of who arrived in the Northwest on the Oregon Trail and when they got here. Once you know the year, come on back to this site and look it up. The Oregon Pioneers web site--a list of mini-biographies and historical sources for each year from 1792 to 1855-- has a wealth of essays on many topics. Well worth a visit for anyone interested in Oregon Trail history.
If you are looking for SOURCES, then read on: In each year, you'll find suggested sources in brackets. You'll also find a list of Trail travelers who kept journals or diaries during that particular year. If you wish to know more bibliographical information about a Trail journal (like when and where it was published) first check the Bibliography for Time Frame--it lists some individual journals and several compilations of diaries written while on the Oregon Trail. For other sources check Stephenie Flora's web site: The Oregon Territory and Its Pioneers for the year that the writer traveled the Trail. The journals are listed at this site in the year the writer traveled to the Pacific Northwest. For example, Sargent Patrick Gass's journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition is listed on the Oregon Trail name list website under the name Gass, Patrick in 1804.
Your comments, additions, and corrections are always welcome.