TO CALIFORNIA BY COVERED WAGON

George R. Stewart is known to the adult world for his gripping accounts of the elements in Fire, Storm, Earth Abides and other books. Here he tells a story based on fact, of a boy who made the trip from Missouri to California by covered wagon train in 1844. The boy is 17-year-old Mose Schallenberger who left a diary behind him, and as Stewart reconstructs his adventures they make a holding picture of pioneering and the adversaries of the pioneers. First comes the Missouri River crossing, then Indians and buffaloes, and rolling west on the Oregon Trail and on to Donner Pass, where Mose stays camping by himself for a gruelling winter before going on to make his home in San Francisco.