Oregon Trail - Legacy

Legacy

One of the enduring legacies of the Oregon Trail is the expansion of the United States territory to the West Coast. Without the many thousands of United States settlers in Oregon and California and thousands more on their way each year, it is highly unlikely that this would have occurred. The western expansion and the Oregon Trail in particular inspired many songs that told of the settlers' experiences. "Uncle Sam's Farm" encouraged east-coast dwellers to "Come right away. Our lands they are broad enough, so don't be alarmed. Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm." In "Western Country", the singer exhorts that "if I had no horse at all, I'd still be a hauling, far across those Rocky Mountains, goin' away to Oregon."

The story of the Oregon Trail inspired a popular educational computer game of the same name, The Oregon Trail. The game became widely popular in the 1980s and early 1990s. Several sequels to the game were also released, such as The Oregon Trail II, The Yukon Trail, and The Amazon Trail. The game resurfaced in 2008 when Gameloft created an updated version for cell phones.

The Oregon Trail was briefly made into a television series that ran from September 22, 1977 – October 26, 1977, on NBC. The show starred Rod Taylor, Tony Becker, Darleen Carr, Charles Napier, and Ken Swofford. Although it was canceled after six episodes, the remaining seven episodes were still aired on BBC 2 in the U.K. In June 2010, the entire series was released on DVD in the USA by Timeless.