A Stark and Unrelenting Tale
The Oregon Trail: two thousand miles of rugged, unforgiving country, and the only road to a new life for a family willing to risk everything to reach it - if they can survive the journey.
John Bartleson's job is to get them there.
A man who reads the land the way others read a map, Bartleson leads wagon trains west toward the Oregon territory. Along the way come brutal storms, broken wagons, swollen rivers, and dangers that strike without warning. Success is measured one way alone: how many reach the end alive.
But the trail is an absolute. It cannot be bargained with, only navigated. The storms and the floods do not care who they sweep away.
The trail does not care - but so long as John Bartleson does, the people in his charge just might stand a chance.