The Oregon Trail: An American Saga

This book attracts from the beginning with a beautiful map on the inside covers showing the route of the Oregon Trail and its offshoots from Missouri to Oregon and California. Two hundred and fifty thousand people traveled over the trail by covered wagon during its heyday from the 1840s to the 1860s and more than 2,000 accounts of the passage were written by the emigrants themselves. The author begins with a brief description of the Chinook Indians who lived at the terminus of the trail where the Columbia River joins the Pacific. He describes the early European voyages to the region and then quickly moves to the era of the fur trappers and mountain men. This can be a bit dry given the multiplicity of travelers and their trips. The book hits its stride with Chapter 6 and the description of the emigrants traveling over the trail in the 1840s and 1850s. The author quotes extensively from the accounts of the emigrants themselves. The most touching of the stories is the two-page account of Catherine Sager of the death of her mother and father along the trail. Later in the book we encounter Catherine as a captive of the Cayuse Indians. I am inspired now to seek out Catherine Sager's book and read her full story. In the final chapter, "Rebirth of the Trail," the author tells the fascinating story of Ezra Meeker who traveled the trail in 1852 and decided to retrace his path in 1900 at age 77. Meeker's epic covered wagon re-voyage excited interest in the old trail and created a movement to preserve portions of the route, some of it still marked with the wagon wheel ruts of the emigrants. The book is well illustrated with photographs, maps, and art. Appendices describe related trails, historical landmarks, and there is even a glossary of 19th century words and phrases that might not be familiar to a modern reader. This is an excellent and attractive book for the general reader. Smallchief