This is the story of the emigrants following the Oregon Trail in the year of 1867. One of families is the Silas Martin family and daughter Mary who keeps a diary of events along the trail. Mary had two suitors during the trip-flamboyant John James Fairfield, 19-year-old son of Capt. Fairfield and James Monroe Cromwell, son of Rev. Cromwell. In the spring 1867, construction on the transcontinental railroad had reached Fort Kearney, Nebraska. Some emigrants were now using the railroad for their westward push. In early spring of 1867, Silas Martin joined 20 other emigrant wagons and 2 cargo wagons at Independence Missouri to begin their trek up the trail. Capt. Zeb Fairfield is the wagon master. Capt. Fairfield has a secret contract with the Army to bring 200 Spencer repeating rifles and $200,000 in gold to General Armstrong Custer bivouacked at Fort Hall by September. The first attack on the wagon train was by the Platte River by a remnant of the Quantrill Raiders and the Cole Younger gang. As the wagon train moved westward, it moved into an area known as the High Plains Indian Wars as designated by the Army. The Sioux and Arapahoe Indians joined forces to attack settlers and wagon trains. The first Indian attack was before Fort Laramie by a large number of Indians. Several emigrants were killed and several dozen Indians. A small Indian war party attacked emigrants in a broken down wagon with one emigrant killed and several Indians. At Fort Hall, four the wagons turn north to Fort Henry. The first days the wagons were accompanied by the Calvary due to an uprising by any Blackfoot Indians. On the third night, a Blackfoot Indian slipped into the camp and attempted to kill Mary.

Describes what it was like traveling on the Oregon Trail, including what travelers ate, wore, and saw along the route

Legendary nationally bestselling Western authors return with a brand-new West Texas–set series for their legions of loyal fans. WILL THIS BE . . . THE LAST WAGON TRAIN? A new railroad line is coming to Hansen’s Bend—and the Old West will never be the same. Especially for the Callahans. They’ve been running the local wagon train outfit for years. But now a pompous rail boss named Arbuckle wants to put them out of business. This big-city weasel mocks the Callahans’ “slow-poke” wagons—and bets he can finish laying track all the way to the end of the line before Callahan’s wagon train even makes it over the mountains. Callahan accepts the challenge—and gets gunned down before it even starts . . . But the contest isn’t over. The wagoner’s son, Luke “Tomahawk” Callahan, has returned to Hansen’s Bend after five years as an army scout. He knows nothing about the rail boss’s challenge or his father’s murder—until he sees the newspaper headline: “The Last Wagon Train?” The pretty lady journalist who wrote it wants to ride along and follow this story to the end. And of course, Tomahawk wants to defend his father’s honor and avenge his death. But Arbuckle has sent his henchmen to sabotage the wagon train to make sure Tomahawk and his wagons are dead on arrival . . .

Presenting the “lost” year of the overland emigrants in 1848, this volume sheds light on the journey of the men, women, children, and the wagon trains that made the challenging trek from Missouri to Oregon and California. These primary sources, written by seven men and women diarists from different wagon companies, tell how settlers endured the tribulations of a five-month westward journey covering 2,000 miles. These intrepid souls include a young mother, a French priest, a college-educated teacher, and an ox driver. Subjected to the extremes of fear, failure, suffering, and hope, they persevered and finally triumphed.

Traveling the Overland Trail toward California, a lonely young woman learns that love can lead you out of the wilderness . . . 1851, Overland Trail to California. As a baby, Callie was left on the doorstep of an isolated farmhouse in Tennessee. The Whitaker family took her in, but they’ve always considered her more a servant than a daughter. Scorned by her two stepsisters, Callie is forced to work long hours and denied an education. But a new world opens to her when the Whitakers join a wagon train to California—guided by rugged Luke McGraw . . . A loner, haunted by a painful past, Luke plans to return to the wilderness once his work is done. But he can’t help noticing how poorly Callie is treated—or how unaware she is of her beauty and intelligence. As the two become closer over the long trek west, Callie’s confidence grows. And when disaster strikes, Callie emerges as the strong one—and the woman Luke may find the courage to love at last . . .

Wagons West Series #

In this first paperback edition, Solomon, a screenwriter/story editor who co-authored The Films of Twentieth-Century Fox and produced the television show That's Hollywood, reruns his history of management in the boom and bust years of this major motion picture company. Includes a photo of founder/producer Darryl F. Zanuck; the introduction to the original edition; and data on the studio's hit movies, film rentals, and production costs. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR