Reviews From Amazon
Mark A. (Ohio) - December 31, 2006
Really captures the feelings while giving the history!
This is a wonderful and easy read that captures the strains, toils and joys that happened on the voyage out west. The author did a very good job of crafting a series of individual stories together into a mosaic. The stories collectively provide insight into the feelings of our brave ancestors, who set out on such a dangerous voyage, all to create a better life for their family. I would highly recommend it, especially so for the school kids!
Beth Olsen (Utah) - January 28, 2005
A resident of southeastern U.S., Tricia Martineau Wagner, while living in California, became captivated by western history, especially the means by which the U.S. became a nation that spanned the continent. Her interest led her to write intriguing stories of those who lived the reality of life on the westward trail while crossing a vast wilderness from Missouri, stretching over 2,000 miles to the bewildering heights of the Rocky Mountains. She depicts a variety of experiences of men, women and children who walked the dusty, long trail midst their worst enemies--time, disease and weather. Tricia's superlative narration swiftly binds the reader to the lives of these historic characters, bringing them vividly to life in the minds-eye. Her twenty-nine factual short stories reveal meticulous research shown in the bibliography. Being a descendant of Rebecca Burdick Winters, the focus of Tricia's last story, I felt again the love and sacrifice of a pioneer mother for family, religion, and friends while reading Tricia's rendition of Rebecca's death by cholera on the plains. Others who felt of Rebecca's love returned that love by burying her body deeply and staying up through the night chiseling her identity into a tire iron to place as her head stone. Rebecca's love did not end with her death, but continued to inspire her family 144 years later when they exhumed her remains for a more proper burial. Rebecca's love still continues, as Tricia later wrote, "Rebecca is working through us all." The entire book opens a little-known frontier of knowledge of an era that each of us can experience vicariously through Tricia's exceptionally well written book.
Denise C. Spiess (Bryan,OH USA) - January 27, 2005
History teacher who LOVES the book
It Happened on the Oregon Trail is a great resource for history teachers who are looking for a well-written collection of researched accounts of America's true pioneers who traveled the Oregon Trail. It serves as a colorful supplement to the often-dry and sparsely detailed history textbook recollections of trail stories. Written in an almost lyrical style, students and teachers will find the vignettes captivating and very emotional. Tricia Martineau Wagner has captured history the way it should be told!
teacher's pet - January 6, 2005
Kids will appreciate the Oregon Trail's trials
These stories come alive as you travel with the families on the Oregon Trail. Kids will come to know these people were real and did endure incredible hardships. Too many stories do not get told to the kids, these stories help keep the Oregon Trail alive, interesting and exciting.
A reviewer, 01/05/2007
Really captures the feelings while giving the history!
This is a wonderful and easy read that captures the strains, toils and joys that happened on the voyage out west. The author did a very good job of crafting a series of individual stories together into a mosaic. The stories collectively provide insight into the feelings of our brave ancestors, who set out on such a dangerous voyage, all to create a better life for their family. I would highly recommend it, especially so for the school kids!
It Happened On the Oregon Trail
Adding to the plethora of books published recently on the Oregon Trail, Tricia Martineau Wagner has compiled a collection of interesting anecdotes about the individuals who made the trek westward in the first half of the 1800s.
"It Happened On the Oregon Trail" (Twodot/Guilford Books. $9.95) contains 29 short accounts of the trail adventures of an assortment of men and women who headed west to start new lives in either California or Oregon.
In the book's introduction Wagner dispels a few common myths about the migration west before she gets into the stories she wishes to share. For example, the Hollywood movie image of a single file line of wagons lumbering along the trail is not very accurate. Wagner points out that whenever possible the settlers' wagons spread out one abreast of the other to avoid the choking dust. Also, she emphasizes that although the Indians weren't thrilled with the hoards of intruders crossing their land, actual armed hostile acts were rather rare.
The entertaining stories you'll discover in this inexpensive paperback include the trailside nuptials of a young couple and the shenanigans that made their wedding night quite unforgettable and a Fourth of July celebration at Independence Rock that offered pie in the sky. Another memorable tale explains how family tragedy and the perils of the Columbia River inspired two men to find a safer, alternative route (The Applegate Trail) to the Willamette Valley.
For those who enjoy trivia, Wagner's final chapter - "A Potpourri of Oregon Trails Facts" - offers five pages of fascinating minutia. You'll discover that the average overland trip in a covered wagon took between four and five months. Today the route can be driven in four to five days! The wagon’s speed was between one and two miles per hour. Averaging between 10 and 15 miles a day, it took a week to go about 100 miles.
And although the movie folk ignored this fact, Wagner states that there were more fatalities from accidentally discharged guns than from confrontations with Indians. The first recorded death from one of these accidents on the trail was a man named John Shotwell. John made the fatal mistake of taking his rifle out of his wagon muzzle first!
Copyright © January 1, 2005 by Bob Walch
Bob Walch is a retired high school teacher whose weekly and monthly reviews appear in 15 publications covering Northern Washington to southern California. He spends his free time reading and reviewing books to stay out of trouble.
Reviews From Barnes & Noble
Anita Sanchez, one who appreciates our ancestors., 01/04/2007
Tricia Martineau Wagner's stories are CAPTIVATING
I cannot begin to tell you how much I am enjoying each and every chapter of It Happened on the Oregon Trail. I am so intrigued by every story. I find it fascinating, as if I really knew each individual and their plight. Your writing is so descriptive. How interesting doctors, writers, judges, entrepreneurs. I find I want to discuss each story with you. I am in awe. You have done an outstanding job of capturing each party or individual, their woes, accomplishments, heartaches. I visually can see each mini story, see them on the trail while I read it. Just incredible!!!
beth white, 01/06/2005
Captivating for Kids
These stories make it posible for kids to understand the people who journeyed on the Oregan Trail were real people who did amazing things to survive. The people come alive and you can feel their trials and hardships.
Beth Olsen, 01/28/2005
A resident of southeastern U.S., Tricia Martineau Wagner, while living in California, became captivated by western history, especially the means by which the U.S. became a nation that spanned the continent. Her interest led her to write intriguing stories of those who lived the reality of life on the westward trail while crossing a vast wilderness from Missouri, stretching over 2.000 miles, to the bewildering heights of the Rocky Mountains. She depicts a variety of experiences of men, women and children who walked the dusty, long trail midst their worst enemies--time, disease and weather. Tricia's superlative narration swiftly binds the reader to the lives of these historic characters, bringing them vividly to life in the minds-eye. Her twenty-nine factual short stories reveal meticulous research shown in the bibliography. Being a descendant of Rebecca Burdick Winters, the focus of Tricia's last story, I felt again the love and sacrifice of a pioneer mother for family, religion, and friends while reading Tricia's rendition of Rebecca's death by cholera on the plains. Others who felt of Rebecca's love returned that love by burying her body deeply and staying up through the night chiseling her identity into a tire iron to place as her head stone. Rebecca's love did not end with her death, but continued to inspire her family 144 years later when they exhumed her remains for a more proper burial. Rebecca's love still continues, as Tricia later wrote, 'Rebecca is working through us all.' The entire book opens a little-known frontier of knowledge of an era that each of us can experience vicariously through Tricia's exceptionally well written book.