Contained within the pages of this two volume set are hundreds of short stories retelling the history and exciting day-to-day experiences of the early Oregon Trail Pioneers. These stories were passed down to their family descendants and printed in the Sunday Oregonian newspapers in 1935-36. David W. Hazen, Staff Writer, The Oregonian, started the popular series and named it "Oregon or Bust". Additional articles are included in the books about the Indian Wars; the Gold Rush in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho; the Outlaws and Murderers that ravaged the Oregon Country; the Vigilantes who rounded up the lawless and "hung 'em high"; articles about several Northwest Empire Builders; the story of a pioneer woman who's 3 needles helped to built a university in Oregon; and one revealing how the human body is affected by the horrible effects of Near Starvation, Dehydration, and Malnutrition. The sides of the canvas-covered wagons often had the hastily scrawled words "Oregon or Bust" painted on them, written to encourage the determined travelers who had heart-pumping dreams of getting to Oregon--or die trying. Thousands did both.
About the Author: Gentry Ward Cutsforth was born in a farmhouse in Gervais, Oregon to Dale and Lillian Cutsforth, and has spent most of his life twenty-five miles south of Portland, in Canby, Oregon. His great, great grandparents, William and Hannah Lewis came to Oregon in 1853 with their twelve children and extended family where they settled on a government land claim in the upper Willamette River Valley, south of Eugene, Oregon. Mr. Cutsforth was raised on a small farm in Canby and attended both elementary and high school there. He also attended Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon and served eight years in the United States Air Force Reserve. After his mother's death, at age 97, he found an old scrapbook among her belongings that turned his life in a new direction. In that scrapbook he found hundreds of clippings of the stories printed in The Oregonian sixty years earlier in the newspaper's "Oregon or Bust" series. Some of the stories his mother had written herself when she was 37 yeas old. While reading these wonderful stories he realized she obviously wanted them to be preserved for future generations to read. He decided to publish these short stories himself. He hopes that you will find these books entertaining and extremely educational for all ages.