Robert K. Nelson, Edward L. Ayers, Justin Madron, and Nathaniel Ayers, Overland Trails, 1840-1860

This interactive map allows users to explore the the nearly 2000-mile Oregon and California Trails and 1,300-mile Mormon Trail over which tens of thousands American migrants journeyed in the mid-1800s in search of land, gold, or religious freedom.  Created using the diary entries of migrants on the trails, the map traces their routes, allowing users to read their diary entries along the way, learn about the larger historical context surrounding their journeys, and see the towns, forts, land formations, and Native American lands they passed or passed through.  Users can also manipulate the timeline on the site to get a sense of each traveler's pace of migration, or to see on the flow map to the right, created with data from John D. Unruh's estimates of emigrants on the overland trails, how the number of people migrating from year to year changed.