Part One – Ohio to the Oregon Territory

 In the early spring of 1851, nine families in western Ohio begin the long trek to the Oregon Territory.  Rebecca Harrigan, the 12-year old daughter of one family, narrates the how and why they decided to go west and relates various events leading to the departure.  She continues the story as it relives the Oregon Trail historically while telling of the people who traveled it in search of free land in a place more than 2,000 miles from their homes.

Part Two – At Home in the Oregon Territory

One hundred seventy-five days after deciding to leave Ohio, the wagon train and the Harrigan family reach Oregon City, the capitol of the Oregon  Territory.  This part relates teh Harrigan’s first two years of living in the Oregon Territory.  After the free land that lured them west is staked and claims filed, their work begins.  Building a home, privy, bard and other outbuildings is priorty as winter will soon be  upon them.  A cooperative effort of the neighbors ensures that everyone is sheltered by the first snowfall.  Rebecca is growing  up and is not sure she likes the new responsibilities.  There is much laughter and joy, as well as pain and sorrow, in the Oregon Territory.

Part Three – Coming of Age in the Oregon Territory

This part of the book follows Becky and her childhood friends, Anna, Betty and Sissy, as they grow to  young adulthood.  They live the history of the Oregon Territory as it struggles to become a state.   They struggle as well with their personal feelings and emotions as they marry young men they have met in the five years they’ve lived in the Oregon Territory.  There is much happiness as well as overwhelming sorrow for the girls coming of age in the late 1850s.  There is political turmoil as well as family situations.

Part Four – The Trail Ends in Oregon

Amanda McKinnett was 12 1/.2 years old when her family left Kentucky for the Oreon Territory.  Her mother referred to the Oregon Trail as “that green dragon that is takin’ people to Oregon.”   By age 13, Amanda was orphaned.  She and her dog Randy were the only survivors of a renegade Indian attack.  Twenty-two days later she was found by a supply train that had been delayed at Fort Leavenowrth.  While the Sheriff in Oregon City tried to find Amand’s only living relative known to be in the Territory, he placed Amanda with the Harrigan’s.  Amanda thrives and grows in the Harrigan family during the historical time of new Oregon statehood.