Ghosts of the Pioneers: A Family Search for the Independent Oregon Colony of 1844 by Twain Braden, Jim Sollers

Abstract

on, forexample, thebuild-up to the eruption, the evacuations, eruption metrics, mudflows, floods, or escape storieswill need to look to additional sources. In theBlast Zone stands as an important piece interpreting the historical, ecological, and human significance of theMount St. Helens eruption. The diversityof perspectives and writing styles itcontains, combined with the clarity and insight lentby a very talented collection of authors,makes ita highly acces sible read. It seems essential reading for those interested inPacific Northwest history, forest ecology, philosophy of nature, and also for volcanophiles everywhere. Daniel C. Donato Oregon State University what sortof researchhe conducted or the reli ability of his historical reconstructions. Like most enthusiasts of a particular event, he over emphasizes itsuniqueness. "Nothing like this period has existed since for American families," he asserts. "We bucked up against the Pacific and realized that was it. All the landwas gone" (p. x). Yet, a great deal of land in thenation's interiorremained tobe homesteaded longafter the Willamette Valley filled. Plenty of families moved west before and afterthe 1840s. That said, Braden offers some interesting accounts of the Sager, Shaw, and Morrison families, and he makes excellent use of the observations of JohnMinto, a prolific and engaging writer who accompanied theMor risons.Braden oftenpoints out how differently men andwomen experienced theOregon Trail and provides an interestingaccount ofhow the Sager children ? who survived thedeaths of theirparents on the trailand then thekillings at the Whitman Mission?"guarded thefamily story" (p. 279). But itisBraden's depictions of the contem porary West thatring most true. He admits that his earnestquest fortheghosts of theoverland ers isquixotic ifnot ridiculous. The search for Naomi Sager's gravesitebrings the familyto "a thirty-milestretchof trailthatno longer exists, longago tilledunder forcommercial hell holes, highways, soybean and potato farms,and,more recently,acres of ugly tracthousing with faux Olde English names" (p. 231).He isalso honest enough to realize that it isa bit of a stretchto equate Missouri's version of pizza or a KOA campground with thediscomforts and disease of theOregon Trail. Braden's reflectionsonwhy he issodrawn to thesepioneers are thoughtfuland provocative. He admires these "badasses" who could hunt and farm even as theycared for theirfamilies; they were practicalmen who "wereprofoundly satisfied with theirlives" (p. 108).Braden clearly fears becoming a modern middle-class man who works at a Dilbertesque desk job before going home tomanipulate theTV remote and GHOSTS OF THE PIONEERS: A FAMILY SEARCHFORTHE INDEPENDENT OREGON COLONYOF 1844 by Twain Braden illustrations byJim Sollers The Lyons Press, Guilford, Connecticut, 2007. Illustrations, photographs, maps. 304 pages. $24.95 cloth. This isa difficultbook to categorize or to char acterize.As the title suggests, itaspires to dis cern the ghosts of three familieswho traveled theOregon Trail in 1844. Braden undertakes thisexpedition on two levels:conventional his torical research coupled with an extended road tripalong theOregon Trailwith a patientwife and four energetic children. Though Braden presents some useful historical material and observations, his book is more interestingand valuable as ameditation on modern masculin itythan as a piece of historical scholarship. This isnot a conventional history.Braden switches back and forthbetween the families of thewagon train and his own.Moreover, he provides no notes or even a listof sources. It is therefore difficultforreaders todiscern exactly Reviews 635 observe the maturation ofdull, obese children. He writes movingly of his shortcomings as a husband and his anxieties as a father, even as he hopes that the ghosts of theOregon Trail will somehow deliver him fromhis fears. Approaching thepast to escape the modern condition, rather than trying to understand history on itsown terms, inevitably leads to at least a littlenostalgia and romanticizing, shortcomings that Ghosts of thePioneers is not immune from.But thiswell written and engaging book often eschews simple answers to the dilemmas of the past and, especially, the present. David Peterson del Mar Portland, Oregon 4). InspiredbyhistorianRichardWhite, Arnold has explored the deep connections between salmon and humans ? an intimacy fostered largely throughwork? asking the question, is there anything intrinsicallyvaluable in the continued existence of local, small-boat fishing cultures? In answering the question, Arnold has untangled some of the social and environ mental relationships between humans and fish along the Alaska Panhandle and discussed how these relationships have shiftedand evolved in...