Riding the Oregon Trail Through Modern America

Rinker Buck, a writer and lifelong horseman from New England, hitches three mules to a covered wagon and turns away from modern highways to follow the original Oregon Trail. His journey retraces a route carved by more than 400,000 pioneers, revealing the real landscape behind America’s westward expansion: ranching families still living on Old Oregon Trail Road, small towns shaped by the rise and fall of the railroad, the frozen lava-tube ice caves of Shoshone, former logging communities facing the end of the sawmill era, and Native voices along the Columbia River who remind us that these paths were Indigenous highways long before wagons arrived.

From desert plateaus to the fertile foothills of Mount Hood, the film captures a rugged transformation that led from wagon ruts to railroads and roads. A raw, panoramic ride through the living history and engineering roots of the American West.

Documentary: Backroads USA - Episode 3: The Oregon Trail to the North West
Director: Katja Esson
Production: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg & MAHA Productions (2013)

#documentary #freedocumentary #documentaries #engine #oregontrail #americanwest #pioneers #westward #history #travelusa #oldwest #frontier #wildlands #horseteam #trailroute #heritage #usaadventure #landscape

Видео Riding the Oregon Trail Through Modern America канала Pure Engine