Great pictures on Adventure Dates of Ash Hollow, Windlass Hill, and Courthouse and Jail Rocks — all important landmarks on the Oregon Trail. I’ll be writing soon about the emigrants’ progress along the Trail in June, but for now, take a look at these pictures.
Continue readingTag Archives: Oregon Trail
Catalpa: Fine Dining in Arrow Rock, MO
On Monday, I wrote about the Oregon Trail emigrants choosing their leaders on the Kansas and Nebraska prairies. This post back-tracks to Arrow Rock, Missouri, where my first Oregon Trail novel begins. And today’s post is about a superb meal I had in Arrow Rock in 2012 – 165 years […]
Continue readingOrder on the Trail: The Governance of Wagon Trains
By mid-May, the emigrants to Oregon in the 1840s had settled into a routine. They were past the frontier towns and out on the open prairie. Greenhorns without experience driving oxen and mules had learned to manage their teams. Wives who had never cooked on an open fire had figured […]
Continue readingJumping Off to the Unknown
Part of my horoscope on my birthday this year read “Develop a way of handling the unexpected, as it will become a regular occurrence for you.” But isn’t this true for everyone? The unexpected becomes expected, because change comes to all of us. Sometimes we seek the change, other times […]
Continue readingA Six Month Journey in One Day
As I write this, I am visiting family in Washington State, not too far from the end point of the Oregon Trail. I left my home in Kansas City, Missouri, very near Independence – one of several jumping off points for the early emigrants. The rainy spring weather in the […]
Continue readingTools for Writing Historical Fiction
Writing descriptions is not something that comes naturally to me. I much prefer writing dialogue. But when writing historical fiction, writing about place is critical. In my historical novels, I have to recreate a world that disappeared long before the lifetimes of my readers. How have I found information about […]
Continue readingTwo Ends of the Trail
I’ve lived at both ends of the Oregon Trail. I grew up in eastern Washington State, near the site of the Whitman Mission. The story of the Whitman Massacre was part of my childhood. I now live in Kansas City, Missouri, near Independence — one of the main jumping off […]
Continue reading