Don Wildman

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It is September 1846 in what will one day be called Nevada.

They have come so far, these travelers, across thousands of miles of hard-packed prairies, roiling rivers, rugged wilderness, even a desert that nearly cost them their lives.

But at last here they are along this river, the Humboldt, with the mountains rising far ahead and the promise of California beyond.

The journey has taken a brutal toll.

They've lost oxen, equipment, supplies.

Some of them are dreadfully sick.

Every mile seems to come harder than the last.

Weeks earlier, they'd made a fateful decision to abandon the established trail for a new route, one that promised to save time, or so they hoped.

Instead, it cost them weeks.