The Bicentennial Wagon Train Pilgrimage began in Blaine, Washington, on June 8, 1975.
The journey was designed as a large-scale traveling commemoration of American history ahead of the 1976 Bicentennial. Participants used covered wagons and traced historic overland routes associated with migration, trade, settlement, and westward travel.
The pilgrimage crossed the country and concluded at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1976. Its route incorporated paths such as the Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail, Mormon Trail, California Trail, Natchez Trace, and Wilderness Road.
Blaine was a symbolic starting point because it lies at the northwestern edge of the contiguous United States near the Canadian border. Valley Forge was an appropriate endpoint because George Washington’s Continental Army spent the winter there during the Revolutionary War.