In 1838, Lieutenant John Lowry Kline serves with a military escort leading deported Cherokees from Tennessee to northwestern Arkansas. Following which he starts a family and moves to southwestern Missouri. After the Mexican War and a few personal tragedies, he and his kin set out along the Oregon Trail to build a better life in the Pacific Northwest.

The wide open spaces of the West open up before them as they doggedly press on, constantly on the lookout for water, grass, or fuel. As the wagons roll over vast prairies, mountains, and deserts, death stocks among the roofs of...