... a fantastic story, and more importantly, a true story ... Hayes skillfully weaves the story ... that stays in the reader's head long after the last page is turned.
Tyler Tichelaar - Reader Views 1-08Celia Hayes' To Truckee's Trail: The Greatest Adventure Never Told is a fine example of what makes historical fiction such a popular genre. Done well, it allows readers to experience all the pleasure of a good story, while at the same time learning about a people who lived long ago. And sometimes the way they lived, and overcame their adversities, can offer us perspective on the perceived hardships in modern life.
To Truckee's Trail is a thoroughly-researched work based upon an actual historical event: the journey of the first western-bound wagon train to cross the Sierra-Nevadas and arrive in Sacramento, California. Today in America we use the words "pioneering spirit" loosely, but the families who migrated from Iowa to California in 1844 were true pioneers. They took turns riding on wagons and on horseback and, as unimaginable as it is to us, walking the 2,000-mile trip. The party members were as connected as a group could be, completely dependent on each other for their daily survival. A woman giving birth could hold up the whole wagon train for days. They experienced some of the harshest conditions fathomable, survived extremes of heat and cold, endured dust storms and snow storms, and yet they had one shared goal--to reach California--that kept them going despite enormous odds.
Known as the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy party, they were an admirable group of people who employed strong decision-making skills, democratic for the times, even in their darkest hours. They started the trip with a much larger group of Oregon-bound travelers, then split from them at Ft. Hall, Idaho, forging their own route southwest through the mountains. Stephens, an unmarried blacksmith, mountain man, and hunter, was chosen to be the leader of the party. The doctor, John Townsend, was accompanied by his wife Elizabeth and her orphaned brother, Moses, an adolescent whom they had raised as their own child. Martin Murphy, Sr. was the head of a large family which made up three wagons. Six other families filled out the wagon train. It is believed that John Townsend, who went on to become the first licensed physician in California, kept an account of the trip, but none has ever been found.
Hayes' To Truckee's Trail utilizes a well-crafted but complex construction of a main storyline interspersed with fictionalized interviews, diary accounts, and letters back home. Hayes' wording of Dr. John Townsend's diary is so adept and detailed, readers may be tempted to think it is taken from an actual diary rather than one painstakingly recreated by the author. Those entries give the reader a first-person perspective of the travels. In addition, Hayes also recreates an interview from one of the children on the journey (University of California Local History Archival Project, 1932) which gives the reader a child's eye view of the experience.
Unlike romance novels that feature helpless women being carried over mud puddles, Hayes populates her story with strong, intelligent women who are not afraid to stand up for themselves. The following exchange, which takes place as the doctor attempts to record a list of those qualified to vote, illustrates the gumption of the only female wagon-owner, Isabella Patterson:
"You can't be a voter," cried Thorp, and an especially argumentative Oregon-bound emigrant named Shaw added, in some outrage,
"You're a woman,"
"That is not in dispute here," Isabella returned dryly "However...I own a wagon, being deputized by my dear husband, who is thousands of miles away from here and cannot speak for his interests himself. In his absence, I am head of my family. And I am going to California...with my wagon...and my family. Kindly explain to me why I should not be able to exercise the responsibilities deputized by my husband in this assembly as regards our journey to rejoin him."
As central as the detailed description of the journey is to the book, the real strength of this historical novel is the character development. Hayes takes her time with it, delving into the interactions between the individuals. She explores the marital relationships, the bonds of friendship which develop between the women, the lessons learned between the old and the young, and the party as a whole and how it is affected by the strangers and the American Indians they meet along the way.
Her characters grow and are so changed by the harrowing journey that they are hardly the same people at the end. This is especially evident in the case of the doctor's wife Liz who, at the opening of the story is in a makeshift steam tent, bedridden. Dr. Townsend is torn, believing the reportedly temperate climate in California might improve her health, yet not sure if she can, or should, make the trip. Near the end of the novel she is so much improved that she is selected to be part of a scouting group that breaks off from the main party on horseback to look for an alternate route through the mountains.
Bravery, courage, and sacrifice were in evidence at every turn. In several cases party members nearly gave their lives for the sake of their traveling companions. Though heroic, the pioneers were also human. Jealousies, fights, and poor judgment calls almost derailed them more than once, but together they persevered, even though at times it seemed likely that they would die on the trail.
We can only imagine the party's jubilation at reaching California with the entire group, plus two infants born along the way, alive and well after such a perilous journey. In Hayes' final diary entry for Dr. Townsend, she describes his amazement:
Fifth of March, 1845. This day arrived with the remainder of the party, delivered from the mountains to Sutter's Fort. ...
...In looking through these pages, it is brought to my mind that we departed upon this road a week short of one year ago. I am much given to marvel, for we seem to have lived many years, encompassed in the space of those tumultuous twelve months just past."
No slight piece of fiction, particularly for a first novel, To Truckee's Trail is rich in every sense: rich in language, rich in imagery, and rich in American history. Readers will celebrate the accomplishments of the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy party and, by the end, will feel in many ways like they have made the journey alongside them.
Elaine Luddy Klonicki -- The History Bookshop
