Oregon Trail – The Grateful Reader

The triumphant true story of a woman who rode her horse across America in the 1950s, fulfilling her dying wish to see the Pacific Ocean, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Horse and The Eighty-Dollar Champion

A few minutes with Elizabeth Letts and how this book came to be! https://youtu.be/dR3emAqYaUY

Elizabeth Letts is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Eighty-Dollar Champion and The Perfect Horse, which won the PEN Center USA Literary Award for research nonfiction, as well as the novel Finding Dorothy. She lives in Southern California and Northern Michigan.

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

“A woman who liked to wear pants and speak her mind, she wasn’t well regarded by local folks at the time. Some breathed a sigh of relief when she left. But Wilkins – also known as Mesannie or Jackass Annie because she rode a donkey to her Job at a Lewiston shoe shop – would become famous for her journey.” Lindsay Tice, staff writer of the Lewiston Sun Journal, November 10th 2013.

https://minotmainehistoricalsociety.wordpress.com/minot-history/mesannie-wilkins/

Annie Wilkins has lost the family farm and the doctor says she has two years to live. This was Annie’s depressing view of the world in 1954. Elizabeth Letts’ “true story of a woman, her horse and their last chance to journey across America” reads like a heartwarming travelogue sprinkled with history, geography, and the pop culture of life in the mid-twentieth century. As brand-new T.V.’s blared “see the USA in a Chevrolet,” Annie had neither running water or electricity, much less a car or a TV on her farm in Minot, Maine. With nothing else to lose, Annie decided to aim herself toward the Pacific Ocean. This delightful memoir of how Annie and her animals are fed and cared for by so many generous, kind citizens and business owners will rebuild hope in humanity for those readers so discouraged by news in today’s world. The author includes compelling, detailed descriptions of burgeoning American industries such as Goodyear, Milton Bradley, and the Gulf Oil Corporation. The Ride of Her Life is a “feel good” trip down memory lane of the 1950’s & ‘60’s. T.V. personalities Art Linkletter, Groucho Marx, Walt Disney, and Andy Griffith are woven through Annie’s story, so readers get a real feel for how the lure of television got its toehold in small towns across America. The bonds of love and loyalty between Annie, her horses and her beloved dog, Depeche Toi, earn a special place in the hearts of readers. From the “Mile-a-Minute Highway” in Maine on the East Coast, through the Lincoln Heritage Trail in the Mid-West, all the way through Cheyenne’s Frontier Days, readers will be as anxious as Annie and the Pioneers on the Oregon Trail. But Annie follows her father’s advice and so should readers: “Have faith and keep going.”

“In this epic and haunting love story set on the Oregon Trail, a family and their unlikely protector find their way through peril, uncertainty, and loss.“

“Amy Harmon is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and New York Times Bestselling author. Amy knew at an early age that writing was something she wanted to do, and she divided her time between writing songs and stories as she grew. Having grown up in the middle of wheat fields without a television, with only her books and her siblings to entertain her, she developed a strong sense of what made a good story. Her books are now being published in seventeen different languages, truly a dream come true for a little country girl from Levan, Utah.”

“The Overland Trail, 1853: Naomi May never expected to be widowed at twenty. Eager to leave her grief behind, she sets off with her family for a life out West. On the trail, she forms an instant connection with John Lowry, a half-Pawnee man straddling two worlds and a stranger in both.

But life in a wagon train is fraught with hardship, fear, and death. Even as John and Naomi are drawn to each other, the trials of the journey and their disparate pasts work to keep them apart. John’s heritage gains them safe passage through hostile territory only to come between them as they seek to build a life together.”

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

“Wagons Ho!” That was the cry of the wagon master at the “jumping off place” for the brave families heading West to Oregon or California. Two thousand miles-with all their cherished and necessary items loaded into wagons, followed by herds of cattle and horses. The unimaginable quest of finding gold, land for the taking, or the adventure is what prompted the Pioneers to leave home and loved ones; to embark on such a wondrous, but treacherous journey.

Map provided by Amy Harmon https://www.authoramyharmon.com/wherethelostwander.html

For 20 years a map very similar to this was provided by the Grateful Reader for third graders as a similar novel for children was read; Bound for Oregon by Jean Van Leeuwen. All the chats by firelight between husbands & wives, and other parents, after the children were in bed, led to the pros and cons of “if and when” to leave on this journey into the unknown. A few had traveled to Oregon and California and returned, and were now available as guides or had written guide books for purchase. Diaries written by adults are accessible but accounts by children are rare. In the case of Amy Harmon’s Where the Lost Wander, her research and genealogy studies give her great family insights into the personalities and possible lives of Naomi May and John Lowry. Check out her website for a great Q&A on the blog. Where the Lost Wander is an adventure, mystery, and love story-but for older teens and adults.

Readers will be in anguish at times, and experience pure delight at others. With every crossing of the Platte and landmarks passed, “travelers on the trail” with Naomi May, her brothers, Wyatt, Will and Web and John Lowry and his mules, will celebrate each mile closer to the destination. Naomi’s mother, Mrs. May, is a brave, proud woman; a font of wisdom and understanding. In a poignant conversation she shares with John, ” The hardest thing about life is knowing what matters and what doesn’t. If nothing matters , then there’s no point. If everything matters, there’s no purpose. The trick is to find firm ground between the two ways of being.”

Traumas along the trail: Cholera, orphaned children, Indian attacks; all add to the stress and emotional turmoil for the families and the reader! But the celebrations of new life, new love, and weddings makes up for it. John’s mother, Jennie, said it best:

In order to travel West decisions had to be made as to what was necessary for survival-physical and emotional. The only decision at this point is to “load your wagon, put on your hat or bonnet”, and read Where the Lost Wander. Destinations and Celebrations are in sight!

Where the Lost Wander earns all the stars in the big prairie sky!