In late October 1846, the last wagon train of that year's westward migration stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of grueling travel, the 81 men, women and children would be trapped for a brutal winter with little food and only primitive shelter. The conclusion is known: by spring of the next year, the Donner Party was synonymous with the...

Twelve-year-old Austin Ives writes letters to his younger brother describing his three-thousand-mile journey from their home in Pennsylvania to Oregon in 1851.

A Missouri guide is forced to choose between going to jail or leading a wagon train across perilous plains to the West. As the caravan winds westward, it faces bitter weather, rugged terrain, betrayal and hostile Indians.

Tells you what it was like to be a pioneer and travel west to Oregon in the 1840s.

Autumn, 1837. Blazing onward from New York to Missouri, the legendary wagon train sent by U.S. President Andrew Jackson has reached the last outpost of civilization. Now five hundred strong, these brave pioneers set a course across the great rolling plains toward the treacherous Rockies, hoping to stake a claim in the American West. Led by their new wagon master "Whip" Holt, they must unite as a team if they are to survive, despite their vast differences....

Based on true events, this compelling survival story by award-winning novelist Jane Kirkpatrick is full of grit and endurance. Beset by storms, bad timing, and desperate decisions, 8 women, 17 children, and one man must outlast winter in the middle of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 1844. 1844. The Stevens-Murphy company left Missouri to be the first wagons into California through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Mostly Irish Catholics, the party sought...