Using diaries, journals, company and expedition reports, and newspaper accounts, the author presents a major one-volume history of the Oregon Trail from its earliest beginnings to the present.

Discusses The People And History Of The Oregon Trail.

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.

A new American journey.

Ezra Meeker lived ninety-eight highly productive years. At times endearing and captivating, he could also be exasperating and irrational. Once he committed to a cause, he was an unabashed promoter. Meeker devoted his final three decades to commemorating the Oregon Trail. A part of his story no one has previously told, this volume begins in 1901 and completes an epic biography. One of Washington Territory’s earliest pioneers, Meeker first came west on the overland trail in 1852. He became a Puyallup community builder, agricultural tycoon, and world traveler before hop lice and the Panic of 1893 devoured his fortune. He dallied in mining and joined the Klondike gold rush, spending four years as a Yukon store proprietor. At age 75 he trekked east over the Oregon Trail with oxen and a covered wagon, setting markers along the way, and became a national celebrity. He visited New York, Washington, DC, and the White House, and managed to convince regular citizens, the rich and famous, governors, legislators, and even three U.S. presidents to support his trail preservation schemes. Never one to shy away from adventure, his other exploits included publishing books, lecture tours, additional Oregon Trail expeditions (one in a bi-plane), attending the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, experimenting with motion pictures, founding societies, cruising in what may have been the first motorized RV, performing in a Wild West show, and roaming the country selling commemorative coins. In the end, Meeker’s extraordinary efforts were crucial to saving the trail.

'Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail' is a book written by Ezra Meeker about his experience traveling the Oregon Trail by ox-drawn wagon as a young man, migrating from Iowa to the Pacific Coast. Later on in his life, Meeker became convinced that the Oregon Trail was being forgotten, and he determined to bring it publicity so it could be marked and monuments erected. In 1906–1908, while in his late 70s, he retraced his steps along the Oregon Trail by wagon, seeking to build monuments in communities along the way. His trek reached New York City, and in Washington, D.C., he met President Theodore Roosevelt. He traveled the Trail again several times in the final two decades of this life, including by oxcart in 1910–1912 and by airplane in 1924.