#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - #1 Indie Next Pick - Winner of the PEN New England Award "Enchanting... A book filled with so much love... Long before Oregon, Rinker Buck has convinced us that the best way to see America is from the seat of a covered wagon. " --The Wall Street Journal "Amazing... A real nonfiction thriller. " --Ian Frazier, The New York Review of Books "Absorbing... Winning... The many layers in The Oregon Trail are linked by Mr. Buck's voice, which is alert and unpretentious in a manner that put me in mind of Bill Bryson's comic tone in A Walk in the Woods. " --Dwight Garner, The New York Times A major bestseller that has been hailed as a "quintessential American story" (Christian Science Monitor), Rinker Buck's The Oregon Trail is an epic account of traveling the 2,000-mile length of the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned way--in a covered wagon with a team of mules--that has captivated readers, critics, and booksellers from coast to coast. Simultaneously a majestic journey across the West, a significant work of history, and a moving personal saga, Buck's chronicle is a "laugh-out-loud masterpiece" (Willamette Week) that "so ensnares the emotions it becomes a tear-jerker at its close" (Star Tribune, Minneapolis) and "will leave you daydreaming and hungry to see this land" (The Boston Globe).