CHAPTER 1
THE LAND IN BETWEEN
Passing Through The lure of the West drew thousands of Americans toward the Pacific in the late 1840s. Expansion beyond the United States boundary at the Missouri River satisfied personal desires for prosperity and fulfilled political yearnings for conquering a continent. The spirit of Manifest Destiny blossomed earliest in the Mexican province of Texas, where a revolution led first to independence and then American statehood in 1845. On the Pacific Coast, migrating pioneers did not wait for the 1846 treaty with Great Britain before heading into the Willamette Valley at the m o u t h of the Columbia River. Oregon fever soon spilled over into coastal California, and American farmers and entrepreneurs saw opportunity awaiting. Then the gold rush of 1849 created an explosion in the westward m o v e m e n t . Overall, the 1840s redefined American boundaries and eventually added seventeen territories and states, among them Utah. Most of the people heading west avoided the Great Basin. Oregon pioneers, starting from Independence, Missouri, hugged the
