Product Description
This next volume in the charmingly tongue-in-cheek How to Get Rich series hits the jackpot once again. How to Get Rich on the Oregon Trail continues the winning combination of authentic historical facts and entertaining fictional voices. The narrative offers good-humored and practical advice for a trip out west along the Oregon Trail.

This whimsical recounting of one family’s journey to their new homestead will give readers an appreciation of the hardships faced by all those who signed up for the great migration. These include hunger, thirst, sickness, hostile American Indians, and even deceit and thievery on the part of fellow travelers. The book also shows the ingenuity, skill, and trickery used to overcome such challenges.

Wittily interweaving the fictional characters’ adventures with historical personages, locales, and events, Tod Olson captures many distinctive facets of the pioneering American spirit. Uniquely, he examines the economic angles of America’s westward expansion, showing the lure of financial opportunities that tempted so many onto the Oregon Trail—and the harsh realities that they discovered along the way. Artwork and archival images create a scrapbook collage effect, making the book a visual feast, and a fascinating snapshot of this period of American history. The rich back matter includes a note from Marc Aronson that specifies what is fact and what is fiction, as well as an extensive "Encyclopedia of the Oregon Trail." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This is a very amusing, but great travelogue of a young man and his family's quest for "fame & fortune" along the Oregon Trail!
Everyone was heading west to seek their fame and fortune.The adventurous Reed family decided they too would follow "the siren call of opportunity ever westward."The only one who wasn't crazy about the whole thing was William's mother, Eliza.She was a practical sort of person and figured they should just stay put like grandpa Silas.John, his father, was a physician and raring to go as was his brother Nathan, an apprentice blacksmith.His haughty and snotty looking sister Abigail, the "queen of the family," appeared to be in a snit and didn't count.On April 1, 1852, they were ready to travel two thousand miles to the Oregon Territory.

By hook and by crook they were going to make it across the continent (and they'd meet plenty of crooks like Stannard and his gang).They traveled by coach and by steamboat until they met up with "66 people and 14 wagons" and a few fools like the man who was going to drive 2,000 turkeys across seeking his fortune.They met up with cholera, Indians, price gouging scoundrels, their fortunes ebbed and waned but the family continued on their journey west.William almost drowned, helped a runaway slave and kept on writing and drawing.St. Joseph, Blue, Chimney Rock, Fort Laramie, Independence Rock, South Pass, Little Colorado Desert. . .they were well into their treacherous journey.William left a few teeth in that coach, but he didn't want to leave any family members on the trail (except maybe Abigail).Were they going to make it to Oregon?

This is a very amusing, but great travelogue of a young man and his family's quest for "fame & fortune" along the Oregon Trail.It was a laughing and learning experience that any reluctant learner would also appreciate.The pages were very busy with photographs, drawings, art reproductions, maps and financial ledgers recording the expenses of the trip.This zany trip provides the reader with a wealth of information about the era and the Oregon Trail.William, ofwhom there is no real recording of, has left us this wonderful recording of his adventure.Hmmmm, will the real William please stand up?You're going to love this book! ... Read more

Product Description
Surveys the geography, history, people, and customs of one of the three states that make up the region known as the Pacific Northwest. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review
Step inside a 19th century frontier fort and discover foryourself what life was like for the pioneers of the AmericanWest. Dramatic cutaway illustrations provide a vivid insight into thechallenges they faced:

• travel westward with a wagon train of pioneers seeking new land tosettle;
• watch the fort being built in rugged terrain;
• spend a day with a soldier, see his uniform and his equipment;
• visit an Indian encampment, and learn how they lived;
• find out about the traders, carrying basic necessities from fortto fort;
• discover how skilled trappers worked;
• witness the coming of the Pony Express, Wells Fargo, and therailroad;
• learn about the daily life of the pioneers;
• find out what happened to the forts after the West was "won".

Product Description
The Oregon Trail was full of danger and discomfort. Rides in the covered wagons were so bumpy that many pioneers preferred to walk, and hundreds died of cholera on the 2,000-mile journey. Still, thousand of men, women, and children pushed on in search of a new life. Here is the story of one family's inspiring adventure, told in the voice of an inquisitive ten-year-old. Jesse's diary is accompanied by games, recipes, authentic photographs, and a fold-out map to help young readers experience what it was like to live through an unforgettable time and place in American history. ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in 1863, this dictionary is an essential reference tool regarding communication between the native inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest and the traders and pioneers that traveled through that area.

Includes English to Chinook, as well as Chinook to English.

From the Preface, by author George Gibbs, "Some years ago the Smithsonian Institution printed a small vocabulary of the Chinook Jargon, furnished by Dr. B.R. Mitchell, of the U.S. Navy, and prepared, as we afterwards learned, by Mr. Lionnet, a Catholic priest, for his own use while studying the language at Chinook Point. It was submitted by the Institution, for revision and preparation for the press, to the late Professor W.W. Turner. Although it received the critical examination of that distinguished philologist, and was of use in directing attention to the language, it was deficient in the number of words in use, contained many which did not properly belong to the Jargon, and did not give the sources from which the words were derived.
Mr. Hale had previously given a vocabulary and account of this Jargon in his "Ethnography of the United States Exploring Expedition," which was noticed by Mr. Gallatin in the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, vol. ii. He, however, fell into some errors in his derivation of the words, chiefly from ignoring the Chihalis element of the Jargon, and the number of words given by him amounted only to about two hundred and fifty.
A copy of Mr. Lionnet's vocabulary having been sent to me, with a request to make such corrections as it might require, I concluded not merely to collate the words contained in this and other printed and manuscript vocabularies, but to ascertain, so far as possible, the languages which had contributed to it, with the original Indian words. This had become the more important, as its extended use by different tribes had led to ethnological errors in the classing together of essentially distinct families. Dr. Scouler, whose vocabularies were among the earliest bases of comparison of the languages of the northwest coast, assumed a number of words, which he found indiscriminately employed by the Nootkans of Vancouver Island, the Chinooks of the Columbia, and the intermediate tribes, to belong alike to their several languages, and exhibit analogies between them accordingly. On this idea, among other points of fancied resemblance, he founded his family of Nootka-Columbians,—one which has been adopted by Drs. Pritchard and Latham, and has caused very great misconception. Not only are those languages entirely distinct, but the Nootkans differ greatly in physical and mental characteristics from the latter. The analogies between the Chinook and the other native contributors to the Jargon are given hereafter.

"The origin of this Jargon, a conventional language similar to the Lingua Franca of the Mediterranean, the Negro-English-Dutch of Surinam, the Pigeon English of China, and several other mixed tongues, dates back to the fur droguers of the last century. Those mariners whose enterprise in the fifteen years preceding 1800, explored the intricacies of the northwest coast of America, picked up at their general rendezvous, Nootka Sound, various native words useful in barter, and thence transplanted them, with additions from the English, to the shores of Oregon. Even before their day, the coasting trade and warlike expeditions of the northern tribes, themselves a sea-faring race, had opened up a partial understanding of each other's speech; for when, in 1792, Vancouver's officers visited Gray's Harbor, they found that the natives, though speaking a different language, understood many words of the Nootka."
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Customer Reviews (2)

Lost Language of the West
Kudos to the editor for helping to preserve this book.What a great tool for understanding old papers and texts!A great addition to the mix of items on my Kindle!

A Language of Trade
Ever wanted to know how to say the Lord's Prayer in hundred year old Chinook lingo?The original book is over 120 years old, and it's great that someone took the time to make it available to the rest of us.History is being rescued, every day -- and I'm glad to be able to get these titles for such a low price (compared to book store or antique store titles). ... Read more

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Discover how between 1810 and 1870 more than 300,000 people traveled west to Oregon Country along trails that were once footpaths used by American Indians. Learn what it was like to join one of the wagon trains leaving Missouri. See and how people on the t

... Read more

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General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1913Original Publisher: W.S. Duniway, state printerSubjects: LawLaw / GeneralLaw / Administrative Law ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

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This Book Is In English. ... Read more

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This Book Is In English. ... Read more

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Introduces the geography, history, industries, people, and other highlights of Oregon. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not a book for little kids
I purchased this book for an easy overview of Oregon for my 4 and 6 year olds.It was more advanced than I expected and not something they would follow are be interested in hearing.For older children, it's a good reference to Oregon's attributes but I think there is more to Oregon than what this book presents.

very misunderstanding
This book is small and not anything like I thought it would be. I looked more like a childrens book to me. ... Read more