Don Wildman

A man tightens a loose bolt on a wheel, another checks the oxen's gimpy hoof.

Gradually, the wagons jockey onto the trail in a long, uneven line, stretching forward to the horizon, towards nothing but grass and sky.

Behind them, exactly the same.

By mid-morning, the sun burns hot.

With every step and turn of the wheels, dust rises into a cloud, settling into mouths and eyes.

Children complain.

Mothers softly hush them.

Near noon, they pause by a creek for water to be collected, brown though it is.

Hard bread is broken and passed along.

No one lingers, noting the clouds gathered in the distant sky and the low, ominous thunder.

Someone mutters a perfunctory prayer.

Finally, by evening, they've circled the wagons and built small fires.

Shirts washed, hung to dry, beans spooned onto pewter plates.

The names of those who have died are spoken of quietly, or more often, not at all.

Because tomorrow, they must all rise once more to meet the dawn and do it all again.

Glad to welcome you to another episode of American History Hit.

I'm Don Wildman, your host, and today we head out to the great American frontier.

First in a series of episodes on the subject, traveling west over the endless plains, teeming rivers, towering mountain passes.

Today's episode tracks that most legendary of pioneering wagon routes, 2,000 miles from Missouri to the Pacific Northwest.

Over the years, it carried hundreds of thousands of people to new lives in what is still one of the largest volunteer migrations in human history.