Rescue on the Oregon Trail (Ranger in Time, #1)

Ranger in Time: Rescue on the Oregon Trail depicts pioneers’ experiences on the Oregon Trail in a fairly realistic way while being age-appropriate for young readers. The Oregon Trail was a long-distance wagon route that stretched over 2,000 miles from Independence, Missouri, through Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Idaho to the Oregon Territory (modern-day Washington and Oregon). In the mid-1800s, approximately 300,000-500,000 people used this trail to navigate their way westward.

European Americans first accessed the US West by sea; they explored and established trading posts, especially for the fur trade. In the early 1800s, other European Americans created overland routes westward. Led by Shoshone guide Sacagawea, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark traveled across the northern US from 1804 to 1806, reaching Washington state. The Oregon Trail was created in 1812 by Robert Stuart, an American Fur Company employee. Tasked with bringing messages from the company’s westernmost trading post to inland posts, Stuart traveled east from Oregon. To traverse the country, he used trails already established by local Indigenous peoples and identified a passable wagon route through the Rockies called “South Pass.” By linking these different trails together, Stuart created what came to be known as the Oregon Trail (“History and Culture.” National Park Service.).

Decades later, in the 1830s, Christian missionaries such as Nathaniel Wyeth and Marcus Whitman popularized these routes, using them to move westward with their families and missionize to Indigenous Americans. In the 1840s, more families began using the trail to move westward, and the numbers steadily climbed throughout that decade. The travelers faced numerous dangers on the journey, from diseases like cholera and smallpox to bad weather, drownings and other accidents, and starvation (“Oregon Trail.” History). These hazards contributed to the trail’s high death rate; about 20,000 people did not survive the journey (“History Bits & Westward Quotes on the Oregon Trail.” US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management.).

Nevertheless, many people were still highly motivated to travel the Oregon Trail. Most travelers, like Messner’s fictional characters the Abbott family, sought to establish new farms on the fertile land in the Oregon Territory, such as the Willamette Valley. Mormons used the Oregon Trail to flee religious persecution, traveling westward to new settlements in Utah. Others followed the trail to Fort Hall, Idaho, where they could turn southward and follow a path through Nevada to reach California. Men seeking to participate in the California Gold Rush often used this route.

As the pioneers traveled the trail, they passed through (and sometimes settled in) numerous Indigenous territories, including those of the Lakota, Sioux, Shoshone, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Bannock, Cayuse, Walla Walla, Umatilla, Tenino, Tygh, and Nez Perce people (“Disrupting the Natives.” Historic Oregon City.). While pioneers feared attacks from Indigenous communities who lived along the trail, these were rare, and many Indigenous people traded with the travelers and acted as paid guides through the trail’s most hazardous places. In Rescue on the Oregon Trail, Lakota and Shoshone men assist the Abbott family in dangerous river crossings, taking them across in canoes or ferrying their wagons over the river on large wooden rafts.

In modern times the Oregon Trail is remembered as a crucial part of US history. It allowed Americans to move westward and settle in California, Oregon, and Washington state. The bravery and resilience of pioneers who endured the trail are celebrated as an inspirational part of US history, as are the knowledge and contributions of the Indigenous Americans who helped make these journeys possible. Stories like Rescue on the Oregon Trail help younger generations learn about this chapter of history. Other books for young readers that center on pioneer life include those in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series, such as The Long Winter and By the Shores of Silver Lake.

In the 1970s, the US government made the trail an official part of the National Trails system, calling it “The Oregon National Historic Trail” (“History Bits & Westward Quotes on the Oregon Trail.” US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management.). The trail, which features heritage sites and landmarks, includes about 300 miles of original wagon ruts.

In the early 2000s, Rinker Buck traversed the Oregon Trail in the same manner as the pioneers did: in covered wagons pulled by mules. Rinker documented his four-month journey from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Baker City, Oregon, in the 2015 book The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey.