Central Kansas Library System

The Oregon Trail is the gripping account of Francis Parkman's journey west across North America in 1846. After crossing the Allegheny Mountains by coach and continuing by boat and wagon to Westport, Missouri, he set out with three companions on a horseback journey that would ultimately take him over two thousand miles. Map.

Frank McLynn has penned a year-by-year account of the pioneering efforts to conquer and settle the American West. Wagons West is a stirring history of the years from 1840 to 1849 - between the era of the fur trappers and the beginning of the gold rush. In all the sagas of human migration, few can top the drama of the journey by Midwestern farmers to Oregon and California. Although they used mountain men as guides, they went almost literally into the...

"Describes the journey on the Oregon Trail from three different historical perspectives"--Provided by publisher.

With his intelligent poodle, Charlie, as his traveling companion, John Steinbeck re-explores his native United States in a camping truck. This book is comprised of his conversations with people throughout the country and his personal observations.

"In 1954, Annie Wilkins, a sixty-three-year-old farmer from Maine, embarked on an impossible journey. She had no relatives left, she'd lost her family farm to back taxes, and her doctor had just given her two years to live--but only if she 'lived restfully.' ... Instead, she decided she wanted to see the Pacific Ocean just once before she died. She bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men's dungarees, loaded up her horse, and headed...

Con Vallian knew the best way to stay out of trouble was to mind his own business. Then he stopped for a cup of coffee at a stranger's campfire and found himself guiding a family of greenhorns across the prairie-fighting a pack of rustlers on one hand and some mighty unpredictable Indians on the other!

In 1851 twelve-year-old Sarah is a free Black, happy living with her parents, grandparents, and brother on their own farm in Iowa; but her father has been bitten by the gold bug and wants to take the trail west to California, and after some argument it is decided that the grandparents will stay on the farm, but the rest of the family will go; the journey will be difficult and dangerous, but if they survive extreme weather, difficult terrain, illness,...

"August is a loner and prefers it that way. He only took the marriage wager to gain breathing room from his overbearing older brother. Besides, the wagon train still has a long journey before it reaches Oregon. Maybe he'll meet someone who turns his head. Felicity longs for love and family, someone to choose her above all. After a wagon train accident robs her of her voice and leaves her dependent on the kindness of strangers, she finds herself in...

Includes information about these Kansas towns: Abilene, Ashland, Atchison, Caldwell, Cherryvale, Colby, Columbus, Concordia, Cottonwood Falls, Council Grove, Deighton, Dodge City, Doniphan County, Elk Falls, Elkhart, Ellsworth, Emporia, Fort Scott, Fredonia, Harper, Hiawatha, Hillsboro, Inman, Jerrerson County, Kingman, Lincoln, Lindsborg, Linn County, Lyons/Rice County, McPherson, Marion, Maxwell Wildlife Refuge, Meade, Medicine Lodge, Morland, Nemaha...

In April 1852, Mazy Bacon's husband, Jeremy, sells their farm, buys a wagon and some cattle, announces that they are heading West, and invites her mother along for the ride. A shocked Mazy has no choice but to follow and hope God will hear her pleas to return home. As the small family journeys westward and joins a wagon train heading for the Oregon Territory, the strengths and weaknesses of each person are dragged glaringly into the spotlight.