Examines what life was like for pioneers following the Oregon Trail.

You're living in the United States during the time of the Westward Expansion. Settlers are heading west on the Oregon Trail as they seek better lives. Will you: Go west with your family as part of a wagon train? Serve as a trail guide for a group of settlers? Try to cope with the changes in your way of life as a western American Indian? Everything in this book happened to real people. And YOU CHOOSE what you do next. The choices you make could lead you to opportunity, to wealth, to poverty, or even to death.

Travel along the Oregon Trail with the pioneers who dared to "face the elephant" as they moved west in search of a new life. Compiled from the trail diaries and memoirs that document this momentous period in American history, Oregon Trail Stories is a fascinating look at the great American migration of the 19th century.

An acclaimed historian’s “compellingly told” year-by-year account of the pioneering efforts to conquer the American West in the mid-nineteenth century (The Guardian). In all the sagas of human migration, few can top the drama of the journey by Midwestern farmers to Oregon and California from 1840 to 1849—between the era of the fur trappers and the beginning of the gold rush. Even with mountain men as guides, these pioneers literally plunged into the unknown, braving all manner of danger, including hunger, thirst, disease, and drowning. Employing numerous illustrations and extensive primary sources, including original diaries and memoirs, McLynn underscores the incredible heroism and dangerous folly on the overland trails. His authoritative narrative investigates the events leading up to the opening of the trails, the wagons and animals used, the roles of women, relations with Native Americans, and much else. The climax arrives in McLynn’s expertly re-created tale of the dreadful Donner party, and he closes with Brigham Young and the Mormons beginning communities of their own. Full of high drama, tragedy, and triumph, “rarely has a book so wonderfully brought to life the riveting tales of Americans’ trek to the Pacific” (Publishers Weekly).

The 22-book American Milestone series is featured as "Retailers Recommended Fabulous Products" in the August 2012 edition of Educational Dealer magazine. Just imagine-riding for six months in a wagon, choking on dust, sweating in searing heat, crossing raging rivers, fighting off disease and Indians-the life of a pioneer on the Oregon Trail. Beginning in the 1840s, thousands of Americans took the risk... and lumbered across this seemingly endless trail to a life of promise in the west. This book includes: • What's in That Wagon? • Manifest Destiny • Perils Along the Trail • Into the Unknown • Who Were Those Pioneers • Bountiful Buffalo • Hands-on Activities • Reproducible Activities • Glossary • Fascinating Facts • Timeline • And Lots More! Students can learn much from the compelling story of the overland pioneers who let nothing, and no one - including daunting Mother Nature, a vast, untamed wilderness, and hostilities of all kinds - stand in the way of their dreams and determination. Climb on up in your wagon and "bump along" in this fun, factual and "Wow-that's amazing" book!

An introductory history of the Oregon Trail and its significance in opening the west to settlers, including information on th people who opened the Trail, their reasons for going west, modes of transportation, and a description of a typical day on the Trail.

A new American journey.