January has been Creativity Month, but I haven’t been very creative. With all the family issues I’ve had to deal with surrounding my father’s death, revising my current work in progress—the first novel in my Oregon Trail series—has taken a back seat. The family work I’ve been doing has been necessary […]
Today I am hosting Christi Corbett, author of the new novel, Along the Way Home, about travelers on the Oregon Trail in 1843 (the year of Jesse Applegate’s migration). Here is my interview with Christi about her book: Theresa: Can you give us a brief synopsis of Along the Way […]
The emigrants to Oregon found many scenic wonders along the way. One of those wonders was (and is) a natural bridge over LaPrele Creek, near what is now Douglas, Wyoming, not far past Fort Laramie. The bridge is 100 feet long and 50 feet above the water, and is one of […]
This past week, while I’ve been caring for my daughter with a broken leg, I’ve thought about the injuries the pioneers to Oregon suffered on their journey. Accidents and disease were much greater risks to the emigrants than Indians, despite what we see in Western movies. One of every seventeen […]
I’ve just begun to realize what a gift my father gave me in having our old family movies saved to DVDs. Each time I watch them, I remember something new – or something old – in our family history. You’ve seen a few of my family stories in earlier posts […]
If the emigrants on the Oregon Trail were fortunate, they reached Oregon City in the Willamette Valley sometime in October – about six months after they began their journey from what was then the United States. The dangers of their trek continued even through the last weeks, when the travelers […]
I mentioned in an earlier post that my next novel will deal with the development of railroads in Oregon, probably in the early 1870s. I also think I will set much of the book in Portland, Oregon, which by this time had become the predominant city in Oregon, far outpacing […]
My current work-in-progress has a murder in it. I won’t say any more than that in this post. As I have been writing this murder into my draft, however, I have gone back to research my ancestor’s murder in 1852 Oregon again. I’ve learned some facts that cast doubt on […]
Once the emigrants to Oregon survived the plains and the Rockies, they still had to traverse Oregon Territory. I’ve written before about some of their choice—raft down the Columbia River, take the Barlow Road around Mount Hood, or take the Applegate Trail to the south then up the Willamette Valley. […]
In recognition of Women’s History Month, this post is about the beginning of the women’s suffrage movement in Oregon, with a focus on Abigail Scott Dunaway, known as Oregon’s “Mother of Equal Suffrage.” I came across Abigail Dunaway in researching prominent women in early Oregon. Abigail was born in Illinois […]
