This popular guide describes the markers installed by the Oregon-California Trails Association's Graves and Sites Committee, providing a comprehensive compilation and description of the trail's fading remnants. For each sign, the book contains directions, the exact text, general background, and access ownership, arranged in sequence from east to west.

"Bruff's Wake tells the story of forty-niners who survived hardship with resolve and endurance. The accompanying illustrations, which include a number of Bruff's sketches paired with modern photographs taken at the same sites, give vivid depictions of life and death on the California Trail in 1849. In addition, Bruff's route is correlated to the geography of the modern era, so that the trail can be traced on modern maps. Taken together, the narrative, sketches, photographs, and geological descriptions of the terrain, coupled with generous quotes from Bruff's long-out-of-print journal, allow the reader to follow in Bruff's wake" -- Publisher's description, p. [4] of cover.

Buck's epic account of traveling the length of the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned way--in a covered wagon with a team of mules, an audacious journey that hasn't been attempted in a century--tells the rich history of the trail, the people who made the migration, and its significance to the country.

The tale of the 1846-1847 Donner Party whose members were snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Anthropologist, Terry Del Bene uncovers the layers of social and cultural belief and action that resulted in the tragedy. To lighten the mood, the author also includes 19th century recipes that the travelers cooked on the trail--before the food ran out.