Wagons West 1848

Wagons West 1848 is a free Oregon Trail adventure that runs in your browser. You lead a family of five from Independence, Missouri to Oregon's Willamette Valley, roughly 2,000 miles of prairie, mountains, rivers and desert. Pick a profession, buy supplies, choose when to leave, then manage food, health, oxen and money while the seasons turn.

The trail follows the real route. You pass Fort Kearny, Chimney Rock, Fort Laramie, Independence Rock and South Pass, then choose between historical forks: Fort Bridger or Sublette's Cutoff, Fort Walla Walla or straight to The Dalles, and finally rafting the Columbia River or paying the toll on the Barlow Road. Arriving at Independence Rock by early July really was the rule of thumb for beating the mountain snow, and the game holds you to it.

How to survive the trail

Take at least three yoke of oxen and about 200 pounds of food per person. Rest when health drops to poor, because sick travellers get worse on a grueling pace. Carry two sets of clothing each for the mountains. Hunt when food runs low: bison are slow and heavy, but you can only carry so much meat back to the wagon. At rivers, check the depth. Fording anything over three feet is a gamble, and floating the wagon means steering it through the current yourself.

Why we built it

The Oregon Trail is one of the great computer-game ideas: simple choices, real consequences, and a bit of history learned along the way. Wagons West keeps that spirit with an illustrated scene that changes across seven regions, a day-and-night sky, weather, landmarks that rise over the horizon, and graves from your earlier journeys left beside the trail. Your progress saves automatically, so a trip can span several sittings.