Chapter III: Preface

Having thrice crossed the Oregon Trail by ox-team, first during the year 1852 accompanied by a courageous young wife, the second and third times during the years 1906-10, erecting monuments to mark the Trail and perpetuate the memory of the pioneers who traversed it, again in an automobile in 1915, and finally over 1,300 miles of it in an aeroplane in October, 1924, presumably none will question that the author can write from his own experiences.

One hundred and seventy-one granite monuments have already been erected on or near-by the general route of the Oregon Trail, along which twenty thousand died. An effort is now being made to portray the scenes and experiences of these pioneers in moving pictures with fidelity to historical accuracy, that present and future generations may know what happened in the winning of the great Farther West.

The names of the actors in this romance are fictitious; but the characters are as the writer knew them. The incidents are based on occurrences in real pioneer life, many of which the author saw, some of which he experienced, and all he knows to be in accordance with the truth.

[Signature of Ezra Meeker]

New York City, January 1926.

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