A fun to read account of early settlers, especially at the beginning when the first trip on the Oregon Trail is covered. The middle, longer section on settling in the west was somewhat less interesting, and the final section on repeating the trip, was little more than a list of towns at times, with occasional interesting incidents tossed in. Meeker was an interesting guy. His second trip was made when he was 77-years old. Some years later, he even went up on an airplane and flew over sections of the trail.