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Saving the Oregon Trail

Product description

Ezra Meeker first came west on the overland trail in 1852. At age 75 he trekked east over the Oregon Trail with oxen and a covered wagon, setting markers along the way, and became a national celebrity. Endearing and captivating, but also at times exasperating and irrational, his extraordinary preservation efforts were crucial to saving the trail. A part of his story no one has previously told, this volume begins in 1901 and completes an ambitious biography.

“Ezra Meeker was inspirational, charismatic, and beloved but also arrogant, aggravating, cantankerous, and obnoxious. Dennis Larsen’s biography sings his praises, exposes his flaws, and shows why without Meeker, America might have forgotten the Oregon Trail’s epic story.”—Will Bagley, Independent Historian

Listen to the Columbia Conversations interview with Dennis Larsen.

Illustrations / maps / notes / bibliography / index / 278 pages (2020)