A woman of the twenty-first century is suddenly thrust onto the Oregon Trail in 1850, the largest voluntary migration in history. Get the book
When Maya Reyes—range manager, insomniac, institutional exile —is transported through time and space from a national grassland in Nebraska and comes to in 1850 Kansas City at the edge of the Missouri River, she has two immediate problems: she has no idea how she got here, and she knows exactly what is about to happen to the people around her.
The Oregon Trail’s 1850 season is one of the deadliest in its history — cholera, drowning, starvation, Indian conflicts, a journey across the continental divide that will kill one in five. Maya knows the cause of the cholera epidemic. She knows the campsites that are contaminated. She knows the fate of the Native Americans as the pioneers trek across their land in massive numbers. She knows all of this and she cannot say a word, because the moment she reveals what she knows, she reveals what she is — and in 1850, a woman alone with impossible knowledge is a woman in danger of a very specific kind.
She joins a wagon company heading northwest and begins the longest 2,000-mile walk of her life, carrying the weight of what she knows and the discipline not to use it, looking for the ley line node somewhere on the trail that will take her home. She learns quickly that her most useful cover is competence. She knows enough about land, water, grass, and weather to be useful without being inexplicable. What she doesn’t anticipate is the immediacy she feels for a thirteen-year-old boy, a woman about to give birth, and a growing love for Jim Whitfield, wagon company’s co-captain.
When she reaches the node, she must decide which road to take. Will she return to her own time or will she stay in 1850?
Reviewer said:
Not only do the characters come alive, but the Oregon Trail itself magically unfolds from Independence to Soda Springs over the summer of 1850. The author does a great job of lending just the right detail to make each and every amazing landmark stand out as unique.
Eliza McCullen description of the landscape, life on the trail, and character development are exceptional which turns a laborious journey into one of self-discovery, growth and descriptive beauty. Once I started reading, the characters kept calling me back as I believe they will call you. This is a must read.