In 1848, while on a wagon train headed for Oregon, fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket is kidnapped by Pawnee Indians and then falls in with a one-armed trapper who teaches him how to live in the wild.

Based on an incident on the Oregon Trail recorded by pioneer Ezra Meeker: "the meeting of eleven wagons returning and not a man left in the entire train; all had died, and been buried on the way, and the women returning alone." The novel explores the possible fate of these women, bonded by loss, growing in faith and fighting for survival.

An account of the westward movement of the pioneers which began in 1841, lavishly illustrated with contemporary paintings and photographs.

In 1948, nine-year-old Joshua Martin McCullough writes a journal of his family's journey from Missouri to Oregon in a covered wagon. Includes a historical note about westward migration.

Ever since her motherś death, twenty-two year old Jori Hayden has lived safely under the shelter of her wealthy father. But when the severe economic depression of the 1800s destroys the familyś fortune, the Haydens must venture west together along the Santa Fe Trail in search of a new livelihood. With her father in poor health and her Aunt Kate̜a dedicated Christian̜keeping charge over the younger siblings, Jori hires Chad Rocklin right out of...

Based on true events, this compelling survival story by award-winning novelist Jane Kirkpatrick is full of grit and endurance. 1844. The Stevens-Murphy company left Missouri to be the first wagons into California through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Mostly Irish Catholics, the party sought religious freedom and education in the mission-dominated land. When a heavy snowstorm hits in October, the party separates in three directions. Now young Mary Sullivan,...

Drawing on fresh archeological evidence, recent research on topics ranging from survival rates to snowfall totals, and heartbreaking letters and diaries made public by descendants a century-and-a-half after the tragedy, Ethan Rarick offers an intimate portrait of the Donner party--ninety pioneers who became stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains in the winter of 1846-47-- and their unimaginable ordeal

THE WAY WEST brings to life the adventure of the western passage and the pioneer spirit. The sequel to THE BIG SKY, this celebrated novel charts a frontiersman's return to the untamed West in 1846. Dick Summers, as pilot of a wagon train, guides a group of settlers on the difficult journey from Missouri to Oregon. In sensitive but unsentimental prose, Guthrie illuminates the harsh trials and resounding triumphs of pioneer life. With THE WAY WEST,...

Charts the journey of those who followed the Oregon Trail in the first half of the nineteenth century, describes the obstacles and dangers they encountered, and discusses the Trail's eventual decline with the introduction of the cross-country railroad.

Describes how pioneers set out across the United States and Canada in the nineteenth century looking for a better life in the West--the routes they took, the covered wagons they used, what they ate, the dangers they faced, and more.