“The New Oregon Trail” is a circa 1940 black-and-white tourism promotion film presented by the Oregon State Highway Department. Supervised by Harold B. Say, photographed by Ralph I. Gifford, and distributed by Castle Films, the film includes scenic and recreational attractions of Oregon. The film opens with a covered wagon train at mark 00:30 and explanation of how early settlers viewed Oregon as “a land of fabled wonder” as they set out westward and created the original Oregon Trail (a a 2,170-mile east-west, large-wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon). “Today there is a new Oregon Trail” says the narrator at mark 00:49 — a network of asphalt-covered highways that takes motorists to breath-taking sites across the state. Mountain lakes dot the state “like shimmering jewels” we are told, and at mark 02:05 visit Celilo Falls and at mark 02:24 Multnomah Falls. Vista House, an observatory at Crown Point that also serves as a memorial to Oregon pioneers and as a comfort station for travelers on the Historic Columbia River Highway, is shown at mark 03:09. This is followed by a host of other sites including Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River at mark 03:43 before visiting Portland, “a modern industrial seaport,” at mark 04:10, and the state capitol building in Salem at mark 05:37. Bathing-suit beautifies engage in clam digging on the beach near mark 07:00 while others play in the Pacific Ocean. The camera shows the viewer a number of scenic views along the coastline and onto Cape Creek Bridge at mark 09:11 and a series of other bridges that span the waters. A visit to the Oregon Caves National Monument and the Marble Caves of Oregon follows, starting near mark 12:00, and we are reminded how Oregon highways allow motorists easy access through scented forests to such tourist attractions as Crater Lake (mark 13:33). Bears stare at the cameraman at mark 14:23 before we are taken to Diamond Lake and then to the Three Sisters volcanic peaks (mark 15:40). We see more streams and rivers and visit snow-capped Mount Hood beginning at mark 18:30 before taking the highway to some of the ranches in eastern Oregon and the famed annual Pendleton Round-Up, shown at mark 20:45 — an event that keeps alive the spirit of the original Oregon Trail.