Many settlers traveled west in large groups of wagons called wagon trainsColumbia RiverOregon Trailreligious freedomGold RushSelect your answer. They headed west for different reasons, some searching for cheap land, some hoping to find gold or silver, some looking for religious freedomOregon TrailCalifornia TrailBrigham YoungColumbia RiverSelect your answer. More than 300,000 people took the Columbia Riverforty- ninersOregon TrailGold RushCalifornia TrailSelect your answer to the Oregon Territory, and others took the Santa Fe Trail that led to Los Angeles.

Some of the early westward travelers included the missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, who set up a mission near the Columbia Riverwagon trainsBrigham Youngforty- ninersreligious freedomSelect your answer in the Oregon Territory. In 1847, James BeckwourthCalifornia TrailmormonsBrigham Youngreligious freedomSelect your answer led over 14,000 Oregon TrailJames BeckwourthmormonsColumbia RiverBrigham YoungSelect your answer on the Mormon Trail to present-day Utah in search of religious freedom. Fur trappers like Jim Bridger and California TrailJames Beckwourthwagon trainsBrigham Youngreligious freedomSelect your answer, who was a runaway slave, were known as Mountain Men because they knew the mountains and trails so well.

The discovery of gold in 1848 by James Marshall at Sutter's Mill led to the beginning of the California TrailColumbia RiverGold Rushforty- ninersOregon TrailSelect your answer. Thousands of people raced along the California TrailmormonsColumbia RiverOregon Trailforty- ninersSelect your answer to be a part of it. Many miners arrived in California in 1849 and became known as the religious freedomGold RushOregon Trailwagon trainsforty- ninersSelect your answer. At that time, California had outlawed slavery and allowed married women to own property. With its population growing rapidly, California became a state in 1850.