In words and pictures, 2,000 Miles to Oregon captures the early years of America's journey into the West. Before the California gold rush, before the transcontinental railroad, the westward push was made by families who wanted to settle and build. Mothers, fathers and children walked most of those 2,000 miles, cajoling oxen or mules, braving storm and sun and drought. Much of the way, their health - their lives, even - were in peril. Writer James J. Fisher and photographer Don Ipock captured this epic migration for The Kansas City Star. Now Fisher's and Ipock's work, accompanied by the emigrant's own words and maps available to them in the 1840s, is brought together in this book.