03083cam a2200433 i 4500 345024587 TxAuBib 20180419120000.0 150615s2015||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 9781410482709 1410482707 TxAuBib rda Buck, Rinker. The Oregon Trail : a new American journey, (LP) / Rinker Buck. Large print edition. Farmington Hills, Michigan : Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning, [2015] 753 pages (large print) : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Thorndike Press large print popular and narrative nonfiction Includes bibliographical references (pages 726-747). Spanning 2,000 miles and traversing six states from Missouri to the Pacific Ocean, the Oregon Trail is the route that made America. In the fifteen years before the Civil War, when 400,000 pioneers used it to emigrate West, the trail united the coasts, doubled the size of the country, and laid the groundwork for the railroads. The trail years also solidified the American character: our plucky determination in the face of adversity, our impetuous cycle of financial bubbles and busts, the fractious clash of ethnic populations competing for the same jobs and space. At once an American journey, a work of history, and a personal saga, this book tells the story of Buck's 2,000-mile expedition across the plains. He was accompanied by three cantankerous mules, his boisterous brother, Nick, and an "incurably filthy" Jack Russell terrier named Olive Oyl. Along the way, Buck dodges thunderstorms in Nebraska, chases his runaway mules across miles of Wyoming plains, scouts more than five hundred miles of nearly vanished trail on foot, crosses the Rockies, makes desperate fifty-mile forced marches for water, and repairs so many broken wheels and axels that he nearly reinvents the art of wagon travel itself. Apart from charting his own geographical and emotional adventure, Buck introduces readers to the evangelists, shysters, natives, trailblazers, and everyday dreamers who were among the first of the pioneers to make the journey west. 20180419. Buck, Rinker, 1950- Travel Oregon National Historic Trail. Buck, Rinker, 1950- Frontier and pioneer life West (U.S.) Large type books. Frontier and pioneer life. Large type books. Travel. Oregon National Historic Trail. United States Oregon National Historic Trail. United States, West. United States Oregon National Historic Trail. United States Oregon National Historic Trail. United States, West. Thorndike Press large print popular and narrative nonfiction.