That was America, my brethren! There
was the seed of America's wealth. There was the great romance of
all America--the woman in the sunbonnet; and not, after all, the
hero with the rifle across his saddle horn. Who has written her
story? Who has painted her picture?
They were large days, those of the great Oregon Trail, not always
pleasingly dramatic, but oftentimes tragic and terrible. We speak
of the Oregon Trail, but it means little to us today; nor will
any mere generalities ever make it mean much to us. But what did
it mean to the men and women of that day? What and who were those
men and women? What did it mean to take the Overland Trail in the
great adventure of abandoning forever the known and the safe and
setting out for Oregon or California at a time when everything in
the far West was new and unknown? How did those good folk travel?
Why and whither did they travel?
There is a book done by C. F. McGlashan, a resident of Truckee,
California, known as "The History of the Donner Party," holding a
great deal of actual history. McGlashan, living close to Donner
Lake, wrote in 1879, describing scenes with which he was
perfectly familiar, and recounting facts which he had from direct
association with participants in the ill-fated Donner Party.
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