The 18 acre community park was dedicated in 1981 and named after the Oregon Trail which passed nearby.
The Oregon Trail was the route for hundreds of thousands of people who immigrated to the western frontiers from the late 1830’s through the Civil War, laying claim to much of the West.
By 1836, the Oregon Trail was followed by missionaries to the Indians in Oregon Territory. In 1842, the Bidwell-Bartleson party left the Oregon Trail in Idaho and became the first wagon train to California. The route is commonly referred to as the Oregon-California Trail utilized upon the discovery of gold in California in 1849.
Starting in the 1850’s, stagecoaches also used the trail; but it was the image of the wagon trains following the Oregon-California Trail to their destiny in the West that would be the most lasting legacy. The Santa Fe, Oregon and California Trails all followed the same route from Westport, Missouri on the Westport Route (which is now Kansas City Road) to Gardner, Kansas, where the trails split. The Santa Fe Trail continued south westward to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Oregon-California Trail headed northwest.
