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Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail
- Narrated by: Alan Crookham
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
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Publisher's summary
When one listens to a true story of a life like that contained in this book, it would be easy to think that the person must be a hero, or a legend unlike any other. In most cases, this would be true. However, in the case of the Oregon Trail, Ezra Meeker was just one of hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children who travelled the treacherous 2,170 mile long road that claimed, according to Meeker, a number of lives that will never truly be known.
To this day, the old trail contains the forgotten bones of so many who were buried in makeshift graves that were trampled into oblivion by the millions of animals churning through the dust on the way. In this true account, written by a true Oregon Trail Pioneer, Ezra Meeker shares experiences that sound like they should be in a fantasy book of some kind.
In this audiobook, Ezra recounts:
- Trees so large that the pioneers couldn’t pass through them, so they dug under them and passed through in deep tunnels.
- His ox Dave, who was eight feet in girth, the largest in the United States.
- Entire families scaling a cliff using fresh animal skin tied together as a rope.
- Children saving the lives of their parents from raging rivers.
Ezra’s story is an epic that sprawls across over 50 years of tragedy, victory, loss, hardship, wealth, poverty, and the tales of many other brave men and women who risked everything for a new beginning.
He also believed in the power of history and the power of remembering what others have done before us. It is because of people like Ezra that our nation became so great. He wrote this book at the end of his life because he believed it would not only remind us of the adventures of the Oregon Trail, but also to instill patriotism in the people who would listen to it. He was always a stalwart, unbending believer in the importance of looking back and learning from the past. Thus, he put this epic tale to pen for us all.
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Story
In April of 1846, 21-year-old Sarah Graves, intent on a better future, set out west from Illinois with her new husband, her parents, and eight siblings. Seven months later, after joining a party of pioneers led by George Donner, they reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains as the first heavy snows of the season closed the pass ahead of them. In early December, starving and desperate, Sarah and 14 others set out for California on snowshoes and over the next 32 days endured almost unfathomable hardships and horrors.
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Absolutely enthralling
- By Sasha Anscum on 06-07-19
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Desperate Passage
- The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West
- By: Ethan Rarick
- Narrated by: Christopher Prince
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In late October 1846, the last wagon train of that year's westward migration stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of grueling travel, the 81 men, women and children would be trapped for a brutal winter with little food and only primitive shelter. The conclusion is known: by spring of the next year, the Donner Party was synonymous with the most harrowing extremes of human survival.
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I REALLY enjoyed this book
- By Roger on 02-09-10
By: Ethan Rarick
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The Best Land Under Heaven
- The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny
- By: Michael Wallis
- Narrated by: Michael Wallis
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Cutting through 160 years of mythmaking, best-selling historian Michael Wallis presents the ultimate cautionary tale of America's westward expansion.
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Well researched but performance is just mediocre
- By T. Redwood on 07-14-17
By: Michael Wallis
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The Log of a Cowboy
- A Narrative of the Old Trail Days
- By: Andy Adams
- Narrated by: Michael Martin Murphey
- Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins
- Abridged
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At the young age of 16, Andy Adams left his San Antonio home to follow his dream of becoming a cowboy. Going on long drives with some of the 19th century's hardiest cowboys, he learned his trade through many adventurous years of trial and error. This account of his true experiences includes dusty cattle drives, brandings, stampedes, dangerous river crossings, and remarkable encounters with the Blackfoot, Oglala, and Platte Indian tribes.
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The Real West Portrayed By One Who Was There
- By Grits on 04-20-12
By: Andy Adams
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Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands
- A Young Politician's Quest for Recovery in the American West
- By: Roger L. Di Silvestro
- Narrated by: Tristan Morris
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands chronicles the turbulent years Roosevelt spent as a rancher in the Badlands of Dakota Territory, following the sudden deaths on February 14, 1884, of his wife, two days after giving birth, and of his mother. Grief-stricken - and driven by doubts about his career after failed attempts as a reformer fighting political corruption -the young, Harvard-educated New York politician left his infant daughter in his sister's care and went to live on a Badlands ranch he had bought a year earlier.
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Outstanding
- By Buyce Consulting on 04-26-15
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The Age of Gold
- The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream
- By: H.W. Brands
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 17 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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When gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill on the American River, it completely transformed the territory of California. Hundreds of thousands of people sped to California by any means possible, and small cities sprung up to service their needs as they sought the precious metal. By 1850, California had become a state; it had also become a symbol of where the nation was going.
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Very Enjoyable
- By Claire on 01-15-04
By: H.W. Brands
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On the Border with Crook
- By: John Gregory Bourke
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 20 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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John Gregory Bourke served General George Crook for 15 years and was his right-hand man. This work is an account of his time with the legendary US Army officer in the post-Civil War West. On the Border with Crook is a written recollection of Crook’s campaigns during the American Indian Wars. Bourke makes the American frontier come alive with his description. He also included descriptions not only of Crook and his fellow cavalrymen, but also of legendary Native American leaders. Bourke argues that Crook etched his name into the annals of American history.
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Fantastic Review of the Late Indian Wars
- By Ian K O'Malley on 08-07-20
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Roughing It
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1861, young Mark Twain found himself adrift as a tenderfoot in the Wild West. Roughing It is a hilarious record of his travels over a six-year period that comes to life with his inimitable mixture of reporting, social satire, and rollicking tall tales. Twain reflects on his scuffling years mining silver in Nevada, working at a Virginia City newspaper, being downandout in San Francisco, reporting for a newspaper from Hawaii, and more.
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The wild humorist of the West
- By Tad Davis on 01-02-12
By: Mark Twain
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A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains
- By: Isabella L. Bird
- Narrated by: Flo Gibson
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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These are the valiant and lyrically descriptive letters, written in 1873, by Isabella Bird, a courageous and spirited Englishwoman, telling her sister of her adventures on horseback over 800 miles of American wilderness.
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The Solution to the Indian Problem
- By Samar on 09-26-16
By: Isabella L. Bird
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Rangers, Trappers, and Trailblazers
- Early Adventures in Montana's Bob Marshall Wilderness and Glacier National Park
- By: John Fraley
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The North, Middle, and South Forks of the Flathead River drain some of the wildest country in Montana, including Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. In Rangers, Trappers, and Trailblazers, John Fraley recounts the true adventures of people who earned their living among the mountains and along the cold, clear rivers in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
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An adventurous listen
- By Hiba on 09-11-24
By: John Fraley
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In the Heart of the Rockies
- A Story of Adventure in Colorado
- By: George Alfred Henty
- Narrated by: Jim Hodges
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In the Heart of the Rockies is packed with adventure! In 1860, 16-year-old Tom Wade leaves England for the American Far West to find his uncle and to improve his family fortunes. Arriving at the small western outpost of Denver to mine for gold, he soon encounters Native American warriors, takes part in big-game hunts, and learns how to survive a frigid mountain winter with nothing but resourcefulness and perseverance.
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Very Disapointing.
- By John J. Baich on 02-27-20
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Down the Great Unknown
- John Wesley Powell's 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy Through the Grand Canyon
- By: Edward Dolnick
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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On May 24, 1869 a one-armed Civil War veteran, John Wesley Powell, and a ragtag band of nine mountain men embarked on the last great quest in the American West. The Grand Canyon, not explored before, was as mysterious as Atlantis - and as perilous. The 10 men set out from Green River Station, Wyoming Territory, down the Colorado in four wooden rowboats. Ninety-nine days later, six half-starved wretches came ashore near Callville, Arizona.
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Modern references take away
- By HC-2 NAS Norfolk '92 on 08-17-19
By: Edward Dolnick
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The Men Who United the States
- America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics, and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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How did America become “one nation, indivisible”? What unified a growing number of disparate states into the modern country we recognize today? To answer these questions, Winchester follows in the footsteps of America’s most essential explorers, thinkers, and innovators. Introducing the fascinating people who played a pivotal role in creating today’s United States, he ponders whether the historic work of uniting the States has succeeded, and to what degree.
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Sarcastic
- By Cynthia Hartman on 06-16-16
By: Simon Winchester