With more than 20 possible endings, this interactive adventure on the Oregon Trail tasks readers to keep their wagon train alive despite wild animals, rapid rivers, bandits, treacherous weather, famine, and even death that stand between them and life out West. Illustrations.

"Retta Barre's not the first 12-year-old girl to travel the Oregon Trail, and she won't be the last. But for something that's supposed to be the grandest adventure of her life, the days sure are dull! Thick dust, vindictive bugs, and picking up buffalo chips - not exactly the stuff of the action-packed penny novels she loves to read. When things change in Retta's life, though, they change fast! A simple trip into the prairie, along with Retta's enthusiasm and timing, brings adventure and trouble - all at the same time! Soon Retta is the talk of the wagon train, and her friends don't want to miss the next caper she's sure to stumble into. And Retta certainly won't let them down."--Back Cover.

In 1845, an estimated 2,500 emigrants left Independence and St. Joseph, Missouri, for the Willamette Valley in what was soon to become the Oregon Territory. It was general knowledge that the route of the Oregon Trail through the Blue Mountains and down the Columbia River to The Dalles was grueling and dangerous. About 1,200 men, women, and children in over two hundred wagons accepted fur trapper and guide Stephen Meek's offer to lead them on a shortcut across the trackless high desert of eastern Oregon. Those who followed Meek experienced a terrible ordeal when his memory of the terrain apparently failed. Lost for weeks with little or no water and a shortage of food, the Overlanders encountered deep dust, alkali lakes, and steep, rocky terrain. Many became ill and some died in the forty days it took to travel from the Snake River in present-day Idaho to the Deschutes River near Bend, Oregon. Stories persist that children in the group found gold nuggets in a small, dry creek bed along the way. From 2006 to 2011, Brooks Ragan and a team of specialists in history, geology, global positioning, metal detecting, and aerial photography spent weeks every spring and summer tracing the Meek Cutoff. They located wagon ruts, gravesites, and other physical evidence from the most difficult part of the trail, from Vale, Oregon, to the upper reaches of the Crooked River and to a location near Redmond where a section of the train reached the Deschutes. The Meek Cutoff moves readers back and forth in time, using surviving journals from members of the 1845 party, detailed day-to-day maps, aerial photographs, and descriptions of the modern-day exploration to document an extraordinary story of the Oregon Trail.

A new American journey.

Young children will love to read this historically-accurate, personal account of pioneers heading west on the Oregon Trail during the mid-1800s. Great illustrations, large print and helpful maps will enhance your child's journey through this exciting historical period.

You're living in the United States during the time of the Westward Expansion. Settlers are heading west on the Oregon Trail as they seek better lives. Will you: Go west with your family as part of a wagon train? Serve as a trail guide for a group of settlers? Try to cope with the changes in your way of life as a western American Indian? Everything in this book happened to real people. And YOU CHOOSE what you do next. The choices you make could lead you to opportunity, to wealth, to poverty, or even to death.

In this collection, choose your own trail and complete the journey to Oregon City with all four books in this exciting series! It's 1850 and your first goal is to get your family, covered wagon full of supplies, and oxen to Chimney Rock on time. But hurry—you'll need to make it through the rugged mountains before winter snow hits. Plus, there are wild animals, natural disasters, unpredictable weather, fast-flowing rivers, strangers, and sickness that will be sure to stand between you and your destination! Which path will get you safely across the unforgiving terrain—from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City? With twenty-two possible endings in each book, choose wrong and you'll never make it on time. Choose right and blaze a trail that gets you closer to your final destination—and don't forget to look at your map! The ebook includes: The Race to Chimney Rock Danger at the Haunted Gate The Search for Snake River The Road to Oregon City

Surviving odds from impassible mud to temperatures in the 120s, a group of ordinary people cross the Oregon Trail in 1959 just as their ancestors had a century before-and find that their own tempers might halt the journey. Dick Carter weaves the history of the original Oregon Trail where his great grandmother died in 1852 with the story of the group of re-enactors he led to retrace their footsteps. The risks of 19th century cholera are replaced with dangers of driving wagons pulled by skittish livestock on interstate highways where traditional routes had been fenced. Big personalities "suffering from too much togetherness" trek together for four months. Romantic nights singing camp songs under the stars give way to threats until the young Carter completes his journey with a maturing sense of human nature and community. Stunning photographs enhance the tale. Martha Crites, author of Grave Disturbance

Re-creates the highs and lows of cooking and eating on the Oregon Trail.