Settling out West during the period of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was not like moving across town to a new house.

Imagine driving to the east edge of Yellowstone Park, then selling your car and buying a Conestoga wagon pulled by six oxen, and starting the long drive to the west edge of the park. You would have no roads to travel on if you were to make your travel comparable to what the pioneers suffered.

You would need food and water not only for you and your family but also for your livestock. There would be rivers and creeks to cross, ravines and cliffs to negotiate, and wild animals to threaten your oxen.

There was also the real threat back then of Indians. The trails were littered with burned or abandoned wagons and the bones of the people and animals that ended their journey at those places.

Now multiply the above pretend trip by twenty or thirtyfold and you would have a fair representation of what a typical pioneer had to face on a real trek.

Dick Urban is also the author of The American Dream, published by Faithful Life Publishers.