Writing Western Novel

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My first thought on constructing a non-formulaic Oregon Trail story - since you've already identified the wagon train as your theme - is to tinker with the cultural identity of the characters, where they are going, and why they might be going there.

One example would be to throw in a main character with a cultural identity we don't expect. Most of the "Going West" stories tend to revolve around people seen as "generic" (meaning lower-midwestern) American protagonists. Whereas two of the most fun Western movie plots I've seen throw out this narrative. One is a comedy - "The Frisco Kid" - which revolves around a Polish rabbi played by Gene Wilder, dispatched as the new leader of a synagogue in San Francisco, who lands in New York but must find his way across the Wild West with the help of an outlaw played by a young Harrison Ford. A more dramatic version of that plot would be the Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman movie "Far and Away" - in which the two protagonists started in Ireland.

So - your wagon train could be anchored by, for instance, a brash New York City boy who has no idea what he's getting into. Or you could have a family of poor East Londoners who risked everything and moved to America to avoid the workhouse. Or find a reason to have a Catholic Priest along for the ride and show his point of view. Cultural tinkering gives you a lot of options. Heck, if you really wanted to mess with people, there were indeed Muslim immigrants in America that far back...not many, but they are there...I'm sure at some point one of them made his way onto a Wagon Train. Now THERE'S something wild to read.

Personally - this might not work for your story - I've always wanted to see is a Western from the point of view of a Chinese immigrant...because there were a lot in California, and they always pop up in old Westerns as the cook or something...and the portrayal is often highly stereotyped. One of these days I want to read a story that flips the narrative on it's head and makes the Chinese cook the hero.

Als0 you could tinker with the destination and reason - for instance, they could be Mormons heading for Utah.

So - there's my two cents. Feel free to deposit said two cents at the nearest saloon, or use them as target practice for sharpshooting.