Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
OREGON TRAIL WAGON TRAIN
tour history in a covered wagon
BAYARD, NEBRASKA
I have never seen stars so bright or a sky so clear.
—participant on an Oregon Trail Wagon Tour
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At last count, there were 4,739 books about the Oregon Trail on Amazon.com, so you
can find out a lot about it at home. But if you
really
want to learn about the Oregon Trail, to
know what those half-million hardy pioneers felt as they traversed the 2,000-mile trail up the
Missouri River to the Columbia River Basin, consider a history trek in a covered wagon train
near Chimney Rock, Nebraska. These four-day trips offered by Rick Baynes and his crew are
about as authentic as you can get. The covered wagons are original—which means no rubber
tires, no hydraulic shock absorbers, and no air-conditioning. Like the pioneers, you'll cover
an average of 10 to 12 miles each day. You can either ride in the wagon (fun until the lack of
shocks soaks in), ride the scout horses (like the early wagon trains, scout horses are brought
along), or walk—something many of the pioneers did without shoes.
Along the trail, you'll sleep in a tent and be served meals cooked over a campfire. Ac-
cording to Randy Allen, who took his wife and two boys on a recent trip, it was a phenom-
enal, once-in-a-lifetime experience, equal to any trip he's ever taken (and that's saying a lot,
because the year before, he took the family on an African safari). “My boys know more about
the Oregon Trail than anybody, because they've actually lived it,” Allen says.
