Showing Journey of Hope: A Novel of Triumph and Heartbreak on the Oregon Trail in 1852 by Victoria Murata

When the invitation comes for a new life and urgency calls for better opportunities, how does one answer? History is peopled with those who have left the comfort of the known world to embark on journeys where their footprints have left permanent markers on the future. Against impossible odds they have followed their dreams, trusting in the unseen providence that births a new land from the womb of the old world behind them, and in their journeying they come to realize that everything that is has needed their participation. Their lives already lived are held in reverence by those who come after and who hold them up like beacons illuminating the wide and timeless expanse of eternity.

In Journey of Hope, Three young women leave Independence Missouri in the spring of 1852 on a wagon train bound for the Oregon territory. Brenna and her family are Irish immigrants. Rebecca travels with her large family from Iowa. Emily is a young bride traveling with her husband Ernest. Six months and two thousand miles later they reach their destination much changed from who they were when they started. Daily life on the wagon train is challenging. Cholera is rampant, crime not unheard of, and death is an ever present visitor. Their hopes and fears are realized in unforgettable experiences of love and loss. Through it all they form a bond with each other that will last a lifetime and encompass the vast and untamed regions of the heart.