There was no room for weaklings in the caravan that set out from St. Louis in the spring of 1835 bound for the Far West. Tom Mason had to grow up—fast. He had to learn to ride hard, to shoot straight, to do a man's work. He had to measure up. And that was not easy, for he was traveling in the company of of frontiersmen like Luke Fontonelle, Jim Bridger and Dr. Whitman, men who understood the hardships and dangers of the trail.
But Tom knew, if he tried hard enough, somewhere out west he would find his father Chad Mason, and a new home. Ever since he could remember, Tom had planned this journey.
It was the long journey—up the Missouri, the Platte, across the plains, the mountains, on to Fort Walla Walla, down the Columbia to Fort Vancouver and Dr. McLoughlin, then up the Willamette Valley. And it was a hard journey. There were hostile Indians, buffalo, grizzlies, storms and cholera. Tom had to learn to rely on himself; to follow orders; to keep his gun ready.
There was fun, too. When the caravan wound into the Rendezvous—that wild event of the frontier where the men met with the Indians and trappers to trade goods for pellets—Tom found out that the men played as hard as they lived. It was a circus, a reunion and free-for-all, rolled into one.
The whole story is based on a true account, Samuel Parker's "Journal of an Exploring Tour, 1938." And, except for Tom and Chad, the persons appearing in the story were actually there: Kit Carson, Captain Wyeth, Dr. Marcus Whitman, Dr. McLoughlin, Jim Bridger, Fontonelle, Sublette—even Kentue.
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