It doesn't use the medium's full potential, but Oregon Trail is actually moderately successful imo at imparting basic knowledge about: 1) the existence of this episode in history; 2) some of the geographical information and landmarks along the way; and 3) a few basic pieces of information about period travel.
There's a lot more that could be done, and it's not clear it imparts only accurate information, but for me at least, it's where I learned that "fording a river" was a thing that existed; that Chimney Rock is a landmark; that there was a period in history when wagon trains were regularly heading out west along this lengthy route; etc.
There's a lot more that could be done, and it's not clear it imparts only accurate information, but for me at least, it's where I learned that "fording a river" was a thing that existed; that Chimney Rock is a landmark; that there was a period in history when wagon trains were regularly heading out west along this lengthy route; etc.