Being as I am, a bit of an Oregon Trail buff – blame Laura Ingalls Wilder, who never took the Oregon trail, since Ma laid down the law when Pa even mentioned it – I really enjoyed this book. It’s not, as most of my books about the Oregon Trail and the West are, excerpts from diaries and letters home, but this is instead a tracing of the Oregon Trail by the author, in his mule-drawn wagon in the 20-teens.

It sounds like he was a bit at loose ends and feeling like he needed something to do. The trip started when he happened to notice Buck happened to notice an Oregon Trail marker in Kansas. Following a nearby path, he ends up at a beautiful park and the Hollenberg Ranch and Pony Express station interpretive center.

You can tell by his tone, even in these first few pages, that he has fallen in love with the idea that following the Oregon Trail will open a sense of adventure, a reconnection with the beauty of America. The wide open spaces. Inspired by his conversation with the volunteer at the center, he buys some books, falls more in love with his notion. The guide unfolds a map and shows him that the entire Oregon Trail has been mapped.

“So in other words,” the author says to the guide, “somebody could still do it. The whole trail.”

“In theory, yeah, I suppose,” the guy responds. “But it isn’t going to happen.”

Ha! Never underestimate the determination of an author with an idea nagging him and time on his hands!

Spurred by a memory of a covered wagon trip his father had taken the family in the 1950s when they were children, Buck loads up on books about the Oregon Trail, invests in some mules and a wagon, and takes off. He reluctantly agrees to allow his brother and the brother’s dog to come along.

This book is so much fun to read. Combining Oregon Trail history, geography, Native American ethnology a road trip, family squabbles, covered wagons, and waaaaaay too much information about mules – it’s a quick read and a fun way to learn about American migration to the West.

His trip ends in Baker City – which I wrote about a few days ago, when I visited the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center there, something you must do if you are ever in the neighborhood, because it was awesome – and then finally, in Walla Walla, a place I know well. I bought a copy of this book for my brother-in-law who likes knowing things and lives in Walla Walla with my sister, and visits Fort Walla Walla at least once a year. The Whitmans – missionaries who were the first white settlers in Walla Walla – were legendary. The wife, Narcissa Whitman, wrote back glowing letters to her friends on the East Coast, who shared them via the newspaper, and inspired many settlers to travel West, despite the fact that things did not end well for the Whitmans.

This is the kind of book that I read and think to myself, I’d like to do that someday. But then I remember that I dislike camping and discomfort. Perhaps some day I will do it in a camper or a sprinter van. But not in a covered wagon.