The Oregon Trail : : a new American Journey

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Call Number: Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / United States / General / Buck, Rinker
On Shelf At: Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / United States / General / Buck, Rinker	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Includes index.
Spanning 2,000 miles and traversing six states from Missouri to the Pacific Ocean, the Oregon Trail is the route that made America. In the fifteen years before the Civil War, when 400,000 pioneers used it to emigrate West, the trail united the coasts, doubled the size of the country, and laid the groundwork for the railroads. The trail years also solidified the American character: our plucky determination in the face of adversity, our impetuous cycle of financial bubbles and busts, the fractious clash of ethnic populations competing for the same jobs and space. At once an American journey, a work of history, and a personal saga, this book tells the story of Buck's 2,000-mile expedition across the plains. He was accompanied by three cantankerous mules, his boisterous brother, Nick, and an "incurably filthy" Jack Russell terrier named Olive Oyl. Along the way, Buck dodges thunderstorms in Nebraska, chases his runaway mules across miles of Wyoming plains, scouts more than five hundred miles of nearly vanished trail on foot, crosses the Rockies, makes desperate fifty-mile forced marches for water, and repairs so many broken wheels and axels that he nearly reinvents the art of wagon travel itself. Apart from charting his own geographical and emotional adventure, Buck introduces readers to the evangelists, shysters, natives, trailblazers, and everyday dreamers who were among the first of the pioneers to make the journey west.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

The trail submitted by erksnerks on June 29, 2018, 5:30pm Wandered into this book and really enjoyed it. The journey, the people, the characters, the precariousness, the knowledge, the country, the beauty, the story all make it worth reading. History shared. Go ahead and read it. Respect the trail. And the author has an awesome name! Travel by wagon.