When the Hayes Family left their farm in Terre Haute Indiana in the spring of 1844 to travel the Oregon Trail to the west coast of America, twelve year old Henry knew it would be an adventurous and life changing event. He could never guess just how life changing. From the steamer that took his and other families up the Missouri River to the wagon journey over the trail they would face danger many times. Make friends, some to be lost again at the next trail cutoff and others that would be with him a lifetime. The Snake River would take his family from him only to give him a new one. For five years he would think himself an orphan. Then through a simple twist of fate find out different. Sending him on still another quest eventually to the same valley his family had left the east for.