The Overlanders

Go West! the headlines said. Two families set out from Missouri by wagon train, headed for California and the Oregon Territory. Five months on the trail gave twelve-year-old Frances Swanson and ten-year-old Laurel Hutchinson plenty of time to become friends. When their paths diverged, they feared they would never see each other again. But life has a way of folding in upon itself, presenting old stories with new twists. Laurel and Frances find their way in the broad new land of mid-nineteenth century America, in the streets of San Francisco and the fertile soil of the Great Northwest.