In all the sagas of human migration, none can top the drama of the journey by mid-Western farmers to Oregon & California in the years 1840-49. Sandwiched between the era of the fur trappers & the post-1849 gold fever, this account of the pioneering years in the overland trails highlights & explains a unique experience both in American & world history. Seeking the promised l&, these travellers trekked two thousand miles by covered wagon from Missouri to their destination on the Pacific. Using mountain men as guides, they went into the unknown, braving dangers from hunger, thirst, disease, drowning & Indians. The early overlanders got through only after Herculean efforts, but later in the decade complacency set in, & the result was disaster, especially in the case of the Donner party, marooned in the snows & reduced to cannibalism.