Originally Posted by kaywoodie
Originally Posted by Rock Chuck
They didn't pick the easiest way to go. The south pass in WY wasn't discovered yet. That's the route later used by the Oregon Trail. It made crossing the Rockies possible by wagon. Of course they were looking for a water route to the Pacific and none exists.


Wasn’t it Jedediah Smith or some of his brigade redited with finding the south pass?
No. Read up on the Hunt party. 60 men employed by John Jacob Astor had gone to Astoria, OR. They followed the Snake River across Idaho but had crossed the mountains farther north where they had fits with the Indians. From Astoria, they sent a party of 7 men back to St Louis. Those men went farther south to avoid the Indians and found the South Pass.
The Hunt party unknowingly blazed the Oregon Trail from WY all the way to Astoria, OR. There are sections of the Snake River in south central ID that aren't floatable except in modern kayaks capable of class 5 rapids. They tried it and had pretty rough go of it. They ended up walking for hundreds of miles.
If L&C had gone that way, they would have got across the mountains much easier but still would have faced the high desert and many deep canyons along the Snake river.

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