For eight decades during the 1800s, the Oregon Trail served as main route for western migration, and traveled approximately 2,000 miles west from Missouri towards the Rocky Mountains, paralleling The Mormon Pioneer Trail. This was not an original trail; in fact it began as an unconnected series of trails used by Native Americans mostly for trade. Large-scale migration began in 1843, when a wagon train of over 800 people with 120 wagons and 5,000 cattle made the arduous five-month journey. Though much of the trail has disappeared due to the construction of towns and highways, over 300 miles of ruts still exist as well as 125 preserved historic sites. Congress designated this trail as an official National Historic Trail in 1978.