Marcelline Burke

The Wagon Master's Tale Marcelline Burke

Danger, Terror, and Hardships: The Price of Yearning For the Golden West... The Beale Trail was named after the surveyor who accepted the federal government's request for a safe and speedy route across much of the Southwest for wagon trains and the pony express. California was beginning to entice Easterners and Midwesterners to seek their fortunes in the new lands. Up until Beale undertook the task of surveying and mapping such a route, travelers were at a disadvantage. Passage was extremely difficult due to mountains, deserts, and uninhabited regions without access to needed supplies, and the threat of Indian attacks was always imminent. This tale, although purely and entirely fiction, resonates with the truth of the first few "pilgrimages" that were made across country on the Trail. The characters in the story are fictional and have no connection to those of the unfortunate travelers who lost their lives in the first early attempt to reach California. Readers of this narrative might enjoy reading about the Beale Trail, the massacre that occurred, and the history that followed the wagon trains that ventured to take this route to the gold fields, etc., of California.