Central Kansas Library System

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.

"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...

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...

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.

A newly expanded edition of personal writings by American frontier women, which includes a new introduction by the author. "Important for anyone who wants a clearer understanding of the people, and particularly the women, who shaped a good part of the nation"--NY Times. "A major revelation in the recording of American history"--

In her diary, thirteen-year-old Hattie chronicles her family's arduous 1847 journey from Missouri to Oregon on the Oregon Trail. In a diary format, this novel chronicles the hardships that pioneers endured during a trip west on the Oregon Trail.

The five Hollister children must find their way to California when their mother dies on the wagon train. (Series: Journals Of Corrie Belle Hollister, 1) --