In 1847, Winnie and her family are traveling west to start a new life in the Oregon territory. While many in their wagon train fret over river crossings, disease, and encounters with Native tribes, she relishes the unexpected freedom of life on the trail. Threatened by storms, wild animals, and outlaws, Winnie must rely on the bonds she's made and all she's learned in order for them to make it to Oregon alive. She also must decide if she is ready to risk forming an attachment to Hal, the cowhand who has a knack for showing up just when help is needed, or whether she will emulate Mae, the free-spirited daughter of their trail guide.
In 1847, Winnie and her family are traveling west to start a new life in the Oregon territory. While many in their wagon train fret over river crossings, disease, and encounters with Native tribes, she relishes the unexpected freedom of life on the trail. Threatened by storms, wild animals, and outlaws, Winnie must rely on the bonds she's made and all she's learned in order for them to make it to Oregon alive. She also must decide if she is ready to risk forming an attachment to Hal, the cowhand who has a knack for showing up just when help is needed, or whether she will emulate Mae, the free-spirited daughter of their trail guide.
Chapter One
The pamphlet Papa had brandished when he’d surged excitedly through the front door those many months ago hadn’t mentioned the monotony. It hadn’t hinted about the stench, the endless rattling, or the insects and dust. To be honest, the pamphlet’s pleading words had been more like a song, beseeching its listeners to travel. “To the West! To the West!” it cried. “There is wealth to be won!”
“They’re giving land away, Winnie!” Papa had exclaimed. “Just giving it away, if we live on it for five years and build a house. Over one hundred acres in the Oregon territory! Isn’t that something?”
Winnifred had smiled and nodded, but in that moment, she hadn’t totally grasped just how drastically everything was going to change.
Now, as she trudged alongside Lenora, gazing at the ample rear of their milk cow and avoiding piles of dung, Winnie wondered what all the fanfare had been about. They’d been on the trail for three weeks now, and the only thing they’d had to look at along the way was livestock and prairie grass.
It was alluring in its simplicity, if one liked to watch grass tossing about like a rooted sea.
“Do you think we’ll be stopping soon?” Lenora rubbed at her lower back with a wince.
The slant of the late afternoon sun was piercing, and
the brim of Winnie’s sunbonnet was powerless against it. She squinted, holding up a hand to shield her eyes as she grinned sideways at her sister. “If we don’t, you could always climb onto Millie.”
Their milk cow twitched her tail with a grunt, as if she’d heard and was less than enthused about the idea.
Nora blanched and shook her head, similarly sheltered beneath her own bonnet. “I couldn’t possibly! Lord only knows who might see.”
Winnie shrugged and kicked at clods of soil as they walked, counting the plodding steps of Millie’s hooves in front of them. “Does it matter? You’re married now. You don’t have to be perfectly presentable anymore.”
Nora chuckled and shook her head. “If Jeb saw me sitting astride a cow with my skirts pulled up, he’d fall flat to the dirt.”
She gave a sheepish look toward her new husband.
Jeb was prone to glancing toward her, as well, as if to reassure himself that his new bride hadn’t dashed away into the tall grass. They’d only been wed a month, and he still looked like he couldn’t quite believe his luck.
Winnie had nothing against Jeb Reed. In fact, she rather liked him.
Tall and gangly, he seemed to always be leaning this way or that, like a stalk of wheat. His reddish hair was continually mussed, perhaps from nervously running his fingers through it. Whenever he spoke, Winnie had to bend a bit closer to hear him properly. A strong wind could snatch his words away.
But he adored Lenora, and had pestered Papa for months for the chance to ask for her hand in marriage. Two weeks before they were set to depart for the outfitter’s town of Independence, Missouri, Papa relented.
“Any man who’s willing to follow a woman over two thousand miles deserves a chance,” He’d winked at Nora.
Marriage suited Nora. She liked having someone to care for. She liked to fuss over people, holding hands and baking pies and gifting them with sincere words. Golden haired and brown eyed, she was a gentle breeze compared to Winnifred, who was more like a runaway horse.
The many differences between them had never bothered Winnie.
It wasn’t that she didn’t care for people, but it was never as natural for her as it was for Nora. Often impatient, Winnie found it easier to seek a course of action than to sit around, wringing her hands. She also had a habit of keeping her feelings close, perhaps too close. She was a lot like Mama in that way.
A bugle sounded at the head of the column, traveling down through the dozens of wagons like a sigh of relief. They would be stopping here tonight. There would be no need for Nora to ride the cow, after all.
Nora reached out to squeeze her sister’s hand before heading for the wagon she now shared with Jeb.
Winnie stepped around Millie’s rump and came up alongside Papa’s wagon, slapping at her once-white apron to try to shed some of the intolerable dust.
Papa walked next to their team of oxen, slowing them to a crawl as the wagons ahead of them began getting into their positions for the night.
They always parked in a circular formation, so the smaller livestock could be rounded up and penned within the wagons, protected from predators.
The coyotes had been particularly cunning, sneaking close enough to snatch any careless chickens or young sheep.
Along with the dairy cow they’d brought from home and a new horse they’d purchased in Independence, they kept six oxen that would be hauling them and everything they owned over 2,000 miles to a place that Winnie had never seen.
She’d wanted to give the oxen all names, but Papa had warned against it.
“They aren’t pets. They’ve got a big job to do, in getting us west. And they likely won’t all make it there.” So the oxen remained unnamed.
“Winnie!” Elijah called when he spotted her from his seat next to Mama at the front of the wagon. “Look what Big John gave me!”
Her little brother stood abruptly on the wagon seat, holding something up for her inspection.
“Sit down, before you fall,” Mama snapped.
Winnie moved closer to Elijah’s seat, pulling her skirt up so there was no danger of it being caught under the wheels.
Mama’s steel-gray eyes watched Elijah like a hawk until his bottom was firmly planted on the wagon seat.
He pouted a little. He was a sensitive boy, and Mama wasn’t the gentlest of women these days.
But Winnie understood.
Only two days ago, a little girl had fallen from the sideboard and been run over by her own wagon wheels. Both her legs were broken before her father had been able to stop the team of oxen. She would live, but her cries of pain could occasionally be heard from within their jostling wagon. Travel would be agonizing for her, until she healed. If the bones had been set properly, she might walk again. If they hadn’t, she would be crippled for life.
But Elijah was only six, and his new toy meant a great deal more to him at the moment than an accident that hadn’t affected him directly.
Along the Trail is engaging historical fiction following the protagonist, Winifred (Winnie) Hayes, as she and her family journey West on the Oregon Trail from Missouri to Oregon. There are a few main characters, and a dozen more in the wagon train that play supporting roles. In the Hayes family are Winnie (almost 18), her brother Elijah (6), her sister Nora (19) and her husband Jeb, Jeb's older brother Hank, and Mama and Papa Hayes. The Hayes' hired cowhand, Hal Clark, near Winnie's age, and Mae (22), the daughter of the wagon train leader, Big John, are also main characters.
This novel could be considered a bildungsroman, as Winnie matures quickly to help her family survive the perilous, months-long trip across the plains and wilderness of frontier 19th century America. Winnie's horizons widen not just in a geographical sense, but in her experiences along the trail observing sickness, injury and death. Winnie questions her faith, at one point "no longer certain God cared about their progress, or about how many of them would live to see Oregon." At the onset of the journey Winnie is "grieving the home she'd lost. And she'd never even known it, until now. It wasn't until those wounds began to close over that she even acknowledged their existence." The author does a superb job of character development with Winnie. We can see the teenager in her and the maturing young woman at the same time.
The events that happen to the characters in the story feel real. The pacing of the sentences during moments of action draw the reader in. Descriptions of the weather and surrounding country set the scene for the majesty of the wild American frontier, where the persistent, hardy pioneers must overcome numerous challenges along the way. There is not much down time in this novel, which likely was true for the pioneers themselves. In fact, the author has clearly done her research in the spacing of the landmarks that the travelers reach, such as Chimney Rock and several wilderness Forts.
Overall, this book is uplifting, with a heartwarming, positive theme. It should appeal to anyone with a particular interest in the Oregon Trail or pioneers. The end of the book is abrupt. Perhaps this book could have been longer, or cuts made to keep the same length but allow for a smoother landing. There are adult themes of love and romance, tastefully done. A female protagonist is fitting, as so many hardy women made the trip West with their families. Despite sacrifice and hardship experienced in the wagon train, Winnie muses toward the end of the journey: "Hope was what led to all great destinations."