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Follow the pioneers to Oregon!

Between 1840 and 1860 three hundred thousand Americans packed their belongings in farm wagons, hitched up their livestock, said goodbye to their families and friends, and set out for the West on the Oregon Trail. William Porter traveled with them in 1848, headed for Oregon in a large family group, including his in-laws and 16 kids, many of them younger than 6.
151 years later, with William's trail diary in hand, John Porter follows their tracks from Pike County, Illinois to the Willamette Valley of Oregon. He brings to life the story of these early emigrants and their times as he drives the route and walks in the ruts of the old trail. Along the way he solves a mystery about the location of the burial place of his great-great-grandfather who died on the trail in 1849.
Join him as he tells their story and his of the journey across the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains to Oregon!

I imagine William standing down along the Boise River in the evening, looking westward at the glowing sun, the smoke of dying campfires drifting downwind, the sound of quiet conversation, perhaps the whimper of a child going to sleep. As he watched the red sun lighting the Boise Mountains I think he felt drawn to the beauty of these desolate places, the strange land so unlike the green and timbered Midwest.
I am much like him, though my "oxen" travel much faster. I am no less fascinated by the country I travel through. And it is not the "land in Oregon" that draws me on but the journey itself, the beauty of the magnificent country, and my awe at the grit and determination of my emigrant ancestors.