Customer Reviews

Oregon Trail Stories: True Accounts of Life in a Covered Wagon

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4 star:		(4)
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I always enjoy reading personal accounts of the Oregon/California Trail. Taken from actual diaries, letters, memoirs and reminisces, these are true to life experiences from the pioneers themselves. A few to mention, without being overly exhaustive would be:
Catherine Sager Pringle and her six siblings becoming orphans of the trail when in the course of twenty six days both parents died. They were then taken to and raised at the Whitman Mission in Washington.
Lucy Jane Hall Burnett's account of taking the disastrous Stephen Meek Cutoff.
The insightful David Campbell reminisces traveling to California. After burying their dead, they would have the cattle trample over the ground to deter any Indian tendencies of digging them up for clothing. Also, numerous brief battles in California for statehood are well described.
Patrick Breen's day to day experiences of being stranded for months in the Sierra Nevada Mountains with the Donner Party are harrowing.
James Longmire's memoirs of traveling over the continent are both entertaining and perceptive.
Excellent.

I used this text as a read aloud with my class as we studied the Oregon Trail. The class was attentive because each of them realized how the writings gave them a glimpse into the lives of actual people. They were no longer just learning about facts, as each reading became like a soap opera behind a major event. I like the way the text offers accounts from different experiences along the trail, most of which shed light on major events that occured at that time.

Its a wonderful book to add to a library of other Oregon Trail books. Recommended as such, because its a wonderful reference point, but its doesn't read like a story so much as more reference material.

If you are wanting to have an idea what life was like on the oregon trail, this book will give you a pretty good idea of the hardships and the good times along the oregon trail as told by several accounts of stories.

This book was very helpful to my daughter when she was working on her 7th grade wagon train project. Insight as to how difficult the journey west was for those who were brave enough to try.

This is a great book to read. Its hard to keep my attention, but this book had my interest. Lots of good imformation.