Carylin' on the Oregon Trail - Day One, Saint Joseph, Missouri

It was a Wednesday, December 12th, and my husband asked me, “You want to go drive the Oregon Trail?”
I responded, “Sure. When?”
“Thought we’d leave Sunday.”

And so we did! Our only itinerary being we’d start at Saint Joseph in Missouri. That’s where the Bavarian Jewelry Shop is where all our “Lockets and Lace Collection” characters get their lockets, the commonality of the Sweet Americana Sweethearts’ collection stories. I messaged our Lockets and Lace organizer, Zina Abbott for the address so I could stop in.

The morning we left, God gave us a magnificent sunrise! The shadow building is our barn at The Peaceable where we live back in the woods south of Clarksville, Texas.


So Day One—Sunday, December 16—was a long drive, just over six hundred miles to get us from Clarksville to St. Jo. We left about 7:30 a.m. then arrived around 6 p.m., making several stretch stops including lunch and gasoline. We woke up fresh on Monday morning in Saint Joseph, Missouri.

We both thoroughly enjoyed the city that celebrates its historical relevance—the town where so many of the “Trails” converged to ferry across the Missouri River! Pony Express, too, though that isn't my story here. Literally, thousands of westward-bound sojourners would descend into the most western area of the then United States, camping all around with their families, all their possessions packed into covered wagons, and their oxen and mules to care for.

They’d arrive in the Spring and would wait there, stocking their wagons with tools and foodstuffs, finding a captain or wagon master to lead them, and join a ‘wagon train’.

The captain might have ten to fifty wagons total, and he’d charge by the person, upwards to ten dollars each—half a month’s wages. A family of four would be forty dollars, two month’s wages. He’d have a list of rules and required supplies.



The best ones had successfully made the journey in prior years and might charge more. It usually took a family’s life savings to go west and claim their piece of free land.

The wagon could run two-to-four hundred dollars, depending on new or used. The prairie schooners were the most suited, while the heavier, larger Conestoga wagons were more expensive and proved harder to pull.

Oxen—bulls castrated after reaching full growth—were cheaper and considered better than mules or horses for their strength and ability to survive on poorer grass and less water. Mules were more sure-footed and could go faster, but cost double. A thousand-mile trip or less might prefer mules, but for the long haul, oxen were best.

There were also provisions necessary to buy. Six hundred pounds combined of flour, meal, salt pork, lard, and coffee—sugar was a great luxury. For meat, they would hunt and fish on the trail. They needed tools to keep their wagons repaired, and cooking utensils, chains and rope, extra clothes, and firearms. And all that cost more the closer to Saint Jo they got.

Many, many trains would be waiting to leave, but each only made one trip each year, leaving in the Spring and doing everything in their power to arrive before the winter storms.

Then came the wait. They wouldn’t leave until the prairie grasses started growing tall and nutritious for the stock. We drove down Francis Street to the Missouri River and saw the place where the bank on the far side had been shaped to handle the ferry’s offloading. The barge might hold five wagons at a time.

When the grasses grew, the thousands of pioneers would line up to get across and choke the streets of Saint Joseph for a couple of months until the last ones to leave could be ferried across. They might wait three weeks in the line for the ferry, and it would work from dawn to dusk to move thousands of wagons and families and dreams across the river.

When the emigrants landed on the far bank, they were no longer in the United States or under its protection. They would regroup with their chosen captains, and their journeys would begin at a pace of twelve to fifteen miles average a day.

Their first destination, Fort Kearny, Nebraska.

Caryl's January release: TEXAS MY TEXAS, book two in the new Cross Timbers Romance Family Saga. Available now for Pre-order! Launch date January 12th!

Watch for the Stories coming in 2019 to benefit from this awesome journey:
APRIL release: Lockets and Lace Collection, book three UNIQUELY COMMON
MAY release: Prairie Roses Collection, book one REMI
JULY release: Gold Diggers Collection, book one A THOUSAND SUNSETS



BIO:  Award-winning Author Caryl McAdoo prays her story brings God glory which is what she lives to do. Her best-selling novels entertain readers around the world who shower them with 5-Star ratings! With forty-and-counting titles, she loves writing as well as singing the new songs the Lord gives her—listen to a few at YouTube. She celebrated fifty years of marriage to Ron in June 2018 and shares four children and eighteen grandsugars with him. The McAdoos live in the woods south of Clarksville, seat of Red River County, in far Northeast Texas, waiting expectantly for God to open the next door.

Website   Amazon   BookBub   FaceBook   The Caryler's Group (join supporters!)