Life on the Oregon Trail (Way People Live) [Hardcover]

Gary L. Blackwood (Author)

Book Description

Series: Way People Live

Describes how people traveling on the Oregon Trail lived, discussing their reasons for going west, modes of transportation, interaction with the Indians, and activities on the Trail.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-A thorough and appealing account of the journey from Missouri to the Pacific Ocean in the mid-1800s. Blackwood covers the pilgrimage from its planning stages through the pioneers' final destinations. Numerous diary excerpts tell of an unmerciful life on the trail where disease caused 9 out of every 10 emigrants' deaths and virtually every family suffered the loss of a child. The text details how the travelers "came to grief" and "what they found to enjoy." Interestingly enough, many of them thought the Indians more of a nuisance than a threat. Blackwood reports on resourceful individuals who created roadside telegraphs by carving and painting messages for fellow travelers on rocks and bones near the trail; one young couple managed to keep their romance a secret from disapproving fathers with this method. Inserts, maps, and black-and-white reproductions effectively augment the narrative. Well organized and extremely informative, this book is well suited for reports.
Laura Glaser, Euless Junior High School, TX
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 111 pages
• Publisher: Lucent Books (March 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560065400
• ISBN-13: 978-1560065401
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,817,063 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gary L. Blackwood sold his first story when he was nineteen, and has been writing and publishing stories, articles, plays, novels, and nonfiction books regularly ever since. His stage plays have won awards and been produced in university and regional theatre. Nonfiction subjects he's covered include biography, history, and paranormal phenomena. His juvenile novels, which include WILD TIMOTHY, THE DYING SUN, and THE SHAKESPEARE STEALER, are set in a wide range of times and places, from Elizabethan England to a parallel universe. Several have received special recognition and been translated into other languages. He lives near Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Life on the Oregon Trail, January 28, 2000

By 

Karen Littlefield (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life on the Oregon Trail (Way People Live) (Hardcover)

"Life on the Oregon Trail" is one of the series "The Way People Live", telling events of historical significance written in prose format. Readers will identify with the families as they begin to make decisions of right and wrong in preparation for the trip from East to West in the 1840s-1850s. Details of required items are given in a format of actual reports to allow the reader to feel involved rather than to be reading "just a history" book. Pen and ink drawings throughout help give a visual image to the facts presented for those who chose to move to Oregon Country. Actual traveler accounts are included with background supporting information to help the reader feel the excitement, fear, expense, and futility of these brave souls. Written in a chapter format, with footnotes, bibliography and index, this book would be of great help to classroom teachers either as a resource for information or to be read to children. Young adults studying the Oregon Trail history will find this a useful book to support their studies.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Great American Adventure, July 12, 2006

By 

Chrijeff (Scranton, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Life on the Oregon Trail (Way People Live) (Hardcover)

This is an interesting and well-balanced account of the huge westward migration overland to Oregon and California c. 1843-69. Like all the series, it's well buttressed with contemporary quotes and illustrations, along with numerous sidebars, and provides an excellent introduction to the subject. And it includes a number of facts that I had never encountered before, such as the "Nineteenth-Century 'Bumper Stickers'" squib on p. 26, the Mormon Trail (on the north bank of the Platte) offering less river crossings than the regular trail, the number of jumping-off points and their various advantages, the makeup of wagon trains (i.e., the derivation of the people), and that as many as 10% of all 1841 movers eventually turned back (or, presumably, stopped and squatted), a number that I suspect remained more or less constant throughout the period. Particularly good is the book's overview of the Indian situation: generally peaceful through the '40's, somewhat iffier by 1851, and featuring full-scale raids on wagon trains by 1862. (One emigrant recalls how "an Indian chief" and several of his braves dived into the river and "made every possible exertion" to recover her father's body after he was swept downstream, though they failed to get it.) There also seem to be fewer errors of fact (as measured against my findings over 40-odd years of study) in this volume than in some others in the series. Author Blackwood quotes Jesse Applegate, a well-known emigrant, as saying that "Emigrants were hungry all the time," and attributes this fact to shortage of game, without stopping to think that the dry, fresh prairie air and the unusual exertions connected with westering may have increased their appetites; and he states that "For an Indian, a mule was almost as good a catch as a horse," a point on which authorities seem to differ depending partly on the tribe involved. On the whole, however, I would definitely recommend the book to young (and adult) students curious about the westward migration.