Each year, thousands of pioneers braved the Oregon Trail, which ran from Independence, Missouri to either Oregon or further west to California. The journey took around five months, with wagon trains only averaging 12-15 miles per day. Journals written during or after the journey document what it was really like to travel those 2,000 arduous miles. Samuel M. Stout (1814-1877) was the captain of a wagon train headed for Oregon.
