Archives West Finding Aid

The Applegate Trail was an emigrant trail in the states of Idaho, Nevada, California, and Oregon, used in the mid-19th Century. It was a southern alternative to the western-most segment of the Oregon Trail. Also called the Southern Emigrant Road, the route was considered quicker and safer. It was intended to bring wagon trains of settlers into the Willamette Valley. Compared to the Oregon Trail, the number of emigrants using the trail was low, but it was still significant in the settling of the Rogue River Valley during the 1850s. The new route was promoted by Jesse Applegate to the Oregon-bound emigrants and thus was named after him.