President James Polk said that it was America’s "Manifest Destiny" to settle North America all the way to the Pacific Ocean. In 1841 the first group of 69 pioneers left Missouri and headed west, bound for Oregon. Each spring, pioneers gathered to begin a 2,000-mile trekwest. The journey from Missouri to Oregon was a difficult, dangerous ordeal that could take 5 to 8 months. Starvation, disease, accidents, hostile Native American tribes, and outlaws were among the dangers. Why would pioneers risk their own lives and the lives of their families to make this migration? For many families it was the promise of land to own, money to be made, and the chance of a better life. From 1841 to 1869, when the transcontinental railroad was completed, more than 350,000 people traveled by foot and wagon to reach Oregon and California.