Frank Carlson Library

In 1910, New York socialite Olivia resists an arranged, socially advantageous marriage. The mysterious death of her sister Eleanor in Northern California is an unhappy but convenient excuse to go West. On the way, she is nearly drowned, and decides to hide her identity when she arrives in Mercy Falls.

In 1848, while on a wagon train headed for Oregon, fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket is kidnapped by Pawnee Indians and then falls in with a one-armed trapper who teaches him how to live in the wild. Fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket is heading west on the Oregon Trail with his family by wagon train. When he receives a rifle for his birthday, he is thrilled that he is being treated like an adult. But Francis lags behind to practice shooting and is captured...

In 1851 twelve-year-old Sarah is a free Black, happy living with her parents, grandparents, and brother on their own farm in Iowa; but her father has been bitten by the gold bug and wants to take the trail west to California, and after some argument it is decided that the grandparents will stay on the farm, but the rest of the family will go; the journey will be difficult and dangerous, but if they survive extreme weather, difficult terrain, illness,...

Based on true events, this compelling survival story by award-winning novelist Jane Kirkpatrick is full of grit and endurance. Beset by storms, bad timing, and desperate decisions, 8 women, 17 children, and one man must outlast winter in the middle of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 1844. 1844. The Stevens-Murphy company left Missouri to be the first wagons into California through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Mostly Irish Catholics, the party sought...

Twins Liz and Lenny, along with their time-traveling grandmother, join a group of pioneers journeying west on the Oregon Trail in 1843.

"When sixteen-year-old Matt Logan and his friend Danny Dugan ran away from an orphanage, they went west. There, they met Jim Bridger, among other mountain men, and became fur trappers. But the market for beaver plews died out, and the two friends took on jobs as wagon train guides. They eventually separated, hoping to meet again. One of the trains Matt picks up in Independence began its journey in St. Louis, led by widower Cody McNair. Cody was a...

While traveling west with her family in 1850, a young girl make a patchwork quilt chronicling the experiences of the journey and reserves two special patches for her pet hen Josefina.

"It's February, 1852, and all around Chicago, Maggie sees the postings soliciting 'eligible women' to travel to the gold mines of Goosetown. A young seamstress with a small daughter and several painful secrets, she has nothing to lose. So she joins forty-three other women and two pious reverends on the dangerous 2,000-mile journey west. None of them are prepared for the hardships they face on the trek through the high plains, mountains, and deserts,...

In her diary, thirteen-year-old Hattie chronicles her family's arduous 1847 journey from Missouri to Oregon on the Oregon Trail. In a diary format, this novel chronicles the hardships that pioneers endured during a trip west on the Oregon Trail.

In April 1852, Mazy Bacon's husband, Jeremy, sells their farm, buys a wagon and some cattle, announces that they are heading West, and invites her mother along for the ride. A shocked Mazy has no choice but to follow and hope God will hear her pleas to return home. As the small family journeys westward and joins a wagon train heading for the Oregon Territory, the strengths and weaknesses of each person are dragged glaringly into the spotlight.