The time was 1865, a great nation was just beginning to recover from four disastrous years of civil war. Thoughts, dreams and hopes turned to America's last frontier - that vast expanse of land between Kansas and the sea. Thousands of settlers and immigrants joined the steady increasing march to the west. Some traveled by saddle horse or mule back, but most of them were part of large wagon trains, drawn by yokes of sturdy oxen. A never-ending cavalcade of pioneers streaming westward along the Oregon trail.