Wagon trails

Light Wagon - Wagon Train Description | The Oregon Trail was… | Flickr

Map image of suggested sites to visit on the Oregon National Historic Trail.

The National Frontier Trails Museum in Independence, Missouri is dedicated to teaching the history of the three main trails heading West. On a damp Saturday morning, we headed to 318 West Pacific, in historic Independence, to see what this trails museum has to offer. We want to thank the National Frontier Trails Museum for their hospitality. Rest

This poem is based on my thoughts and emotions while standing in the wagon ruts of the ​Oregon Trail at Guernsey, Wyoming on September 21, 2009

Take a scenic ride through 42 miles of ghost towns, mines, bridges, and a historic dam.

Easily preserved foods with dense calories like bacon, flour, rice and dried corn were the staples of pioneer cuisine. Jacqueline Williams, writing for the Oregon-California Trails Association Overland Journal, described a repetitive, dull menu characterized by bacon and bread, cornmeal mush, sugar and coffee. These basics were interspersed with whatever foods were available on the trail.

Today I got a call from Ben Kern, described as “likely the most experienced wagon train expert alive today.” He said that he’s in the initi...

I read an article about being able to still see, feel and walk in the tracks of the Oregon Trail, so naturally I plotted out when and where I might come across these curiosities. On our way home fr…

Do you know that feeling you get when, after a few years, you see your nephew Tony, and he looks like a totally different person. He’s grown 18 inches, has facial hair, and suddenly talks lik…

prairie schooner, 19th-century covered wagon popularly used by emigrants traveling to the American West. In particular, it was the vehicle of choice on the Oregon Trail. The name prairie schooner was derived from the wagon’s white canvas cover, or bonnet, which gave it the appearance, from a distance, of the sailing ship known as a schooner. The prairie schooner was smaller and lighter than the Conestoga wagon—which at the time was popular in the eastern United States for hauling freight—and…