TING A NEW START IN THE NEW LAND 69

11. HUNTING FOR ANOTHER HOME SITE 78

12. CRUISING ABOUT ON PUGET SOUND 86

13. MOVING FROM THE COLUMBIA TO PUGET SOUND 99

14. MESSAGES AND MESSENGERS 106

15. BLAZING THE WAY THROUGH NATCHESS PASS 115

16. CLIMBING THE CASCADE MOUNTAINS 122

17. FINDING MY PEOPLE 128

18. INDIAN WAR DAYS 135

19. THE STAMPEDE FOR THE GOLD DIGGINGS 141

20. MAKING A PERMANENT HOME IN THE WILDS 146

21. FINDING AND LOSING A FORTUNE 154

22. TRYING FOR A FORTUNE IN ALASKA 160

PART THREE--RETRACING THE OLD OREGON TRAIL

23. A PLAN FOR A MEMORIAL TO THE PIONEERS 165

24. ON THE OVERLAND TRAIL AGAIN 177

25. TRAILING ON TO THE SOUTH PASS 185

26. REVIVING OLD MEMORIES OF THE TRAIL 195

27. A BIT OF BAD LUCK 204

28. DRIVING ON TO THE CAPITAL 212

29. THE END OF THE LONG TRAIL 219

THE WORLD'S GREATEST TRAIL

WORN deep and wide by the migration of three hundred thousand people,
lined by the graves of twenty thousand dead, witness of romance and
tragedy, the Oregon Trail is unique in history and will always be sacred
to the memories of the pioneers. Reaching the summit of the Rockies upon
an evenly distributed grade of eight feet to the mile, following the
watercourse of the River Platte and tributaries to within two miles of
the summit of the South Pass, through the Rocky Mountain barrier,
descending to the tidewaters of the Pacific, through the Valleys of the
Snake and the Columbia, the route of the Oregon Trail points the way for
a great National Highway from the Missouri River to Puget Sound: a
roadway of greatest commercial importance, a highway of military
preparedness, a route for a lasting memorial to the pioneers, thus
combining utility and sentiment.

[Illustration: Signature: Ezra Meeker]

PART ONE

FROM OHIO TO THE COAST

[Illustration: NORTH AMERICA IN 1830]

This map shows the main divisions of North America as they were when
Ezra Meeker was born. The shading in the Arctic region shows how much
there was still for the explorers to discover.

The Oregon Country is shown as part of the United States, although the
whole region was in dispute bet