One of the wonders of the Oregon Trail close to the jumping off point was the large amount of debris left behind.
Most of it was not rubbish, but perfectly good articles that had been bought at the Jumping Off Places.
It happened because people quickly realised that they could not carry as much as they thought, and they had to throw it out. So following them behind were people from the Jumping Off Places. They collected it, took it back their stores and resold it to the next unsuspecting pioneer.
