A campaign poster for the 11th President, James K. Polk, is seen. Polk beat Henry Clay in 1844 and is considered the least known of the consequential Presidents. He acquired not only the Oregon territory of the Pacific Northwest through negotiation with Great Britain, but also the territories of the Southwest (the result of a war with Mexico) and the Republic of Texas. Polk also made an effort to buy Cuba from Spain. He left office on 3/4/1849 and died not long afterward, on 6/15/1849 (most likely from cholera).
This is one of 20 Zane Grey stories, filmed by Paramount in the 1930s, that it sold to Favorite Films for re-release, circa 1950-52. The failure of Paramount, the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies.
The Oregon Trail was accessible only by foot or horseback in its earliest days (1811-40). The first wagon train started out in 1836 when the road was improved to accommodate wagons from Independence (MO) to Fort Hill, ID. Each year improvements like ferry crossings were added. The eastern portion of the Trail also served as the beginning of other western routes--the California Trail, the Bozeman Trail and the Mormon Trail--before they broke off into different directions. During its peak years (1846-69) 400,000 settlers, pioneers, trappers, miners, etc., took advantage of the highway. When the transcontinental railroad opened in 1869, use of the trail went into decline.
The film suggests that to deter pioneers from settling in Oregon, Native Americans were encouraged to attack the wagon trains. In actuality, the Hudson Bay Co., which controlled the fur trade, consciously tried to eradicate all the fur-bearing animals of the area by dispatching five brigades of 20 to 40 individuals to go back and forth along the Willamette, Umpqua and Rogue Valleys to the Sacramento Valley of California and the Upper Snake River region, through which settlers would have to pass. The plan of ecological devastation undertaken by the company was to create an area so devoid of furs that Americans crossing the Rockies would become discouraged and turn back. The company's strategy was generally successful in that objective. By the early 1840s, just before this film takes place (1844-45), the fur trade had declined greatly largely because of the precipitous decline in the population of fur-bearing animals and a change in Eastern tastes as the beaver hat fell out of fashion.
This film was re-released theatrically under its original title, but when it was sold to television, it was re-titled "Caravans West", most likely to protect the theatrical re-release showings that were still in progress in some territories. It was first telecast in Detroit 11/20/53 on WXYZ (Channel 7), in New York City 1/13/54 on WCBS (Channel 2), and in Los Angeles 5/16/54 on KNBH (Channel 4); in San Francisco it was first broadcast 9/27/55 on KPIX (Channel 5).