What is the difference between the Mormon and Oregon trails?

Answer 1

The Oregon Trail at times converges with the Mormon Trail, and most often runs parallel to it.

The Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail began for vastly different reasons. Let's start with the Oregon Trail.

The Oregon Trail began as a road for Westward expansion. Fur traders and trappers first set the trail, which was passable only on foot or on horseback. It later was by gold miners, the poor seeking greater opportunity, and even criminals fleeing into the "Wild West." The Oregon Trail represents Manifest Destiny, American Frontierism, and American Expansionism.

The Mormon Trail has more in common with the Native Americans' Trail of Tears and far less in common with the American dream. The Latter-day Saints (called "Mormons" because the hold the Book of Mormon as a sacred text and testimony of Jesus Christ) were slaughtered and kicked out of their homes in Ohio, Missouri, and finally in Illinois. After the martyrdom of Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith at Carthage, Illinois, Brigham Young (then president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles) led the Latter-day Saints westward to escape persecution and slaughter. The course of their exodus is now known as the Mormon Trail.

The Mormons settled primarily in what we now know as Utah, Idaho, Arizona, and California, and what was at that time Mexico. During their trek, the United States Army requested Mormon aid in the Mexican-American War, to which the company acquiesced despite the state and federal government's continued "blind eye" toward the injustices committed against them.