Wagon Train

"Faith and Betrayal" tells the remarkable story of Jean Rio Baker Pearce, an intrepid woman who converted to Mormonism in England, immigrated to America in 1851 and traveled to Utah by wagon train, then moved on to California after abandoning her Mormon faith.

After a hand-stitched title card announces the year and place as 1845 Oregon, "Meek's Cutoff" shows the slow, laborious process of a small wagon train moving across open country. A river is crossed, water gathered, clothes wrung out, cookware scrubbed. Then, as one shot dissolves slowly into another, one barren landscape fading in from the last, the wagons and their guide seem to roll right across an expanse of open sky, an image at once rustic, fragile and mystical. "Meek's Cutoff" is by all technical definitions a western but also clearly something more.

Local businesses in Northern California's Gold Country are organizing the first-ever Sonora Pass Wagon Train, rolling across 94 miles of California 108 between Bridgeport and Twain Harte, Calif., from Aug. 27 to Sept. 5. As of last week, there were still spots open for outriders (horseback riders with their own horses) and teamsters (drivers with their own wagons). Passenger slots were filled, but organizers said there may be last-minute openings.

Nathan Scott, a film and television composer, arranger and conductor whose credits include composing music for the TV classics "Dragnet" and "Lassie," has died. He was 94. Scott, the father of jazz saxophonist and composer-arranger Tom Scott, died Saturday of age-related causes at his home in Sherman Oaks , said his daughter, Linda Colley. In a four-decade career that began on radio in the early 1940s, Scott launched a six-year post-World War II stint at Republic Pictures as a composer, arranger and conductor on films starring actors such as Gene Autry, Rocky Lane, Roy Rogers and Bob Steele.

Back in 1950, John Ford directed the Western drama "Wagon Master" about two young cowhands (Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr.) who join a Mormon wagon train traveling to Utah. That classic, which was filmed in Monument Valley, became the basis of the long-running TV Western "Wagon Train." Repeats of the series currently air Saturdays on the Family Channel. "Wagon Train" premiered Sept. 18, 1957, on NBC.

History has a way of coming alive in North Dakota. It happens every June. A weeklong trip into the 1800s of the American West draws buffs from across the nation and around the world to Ft. Seward, northwest of Jamestown. This old U.S. Cavalry post is the starting point each year of a working pioneer wagon train.

Bump along on an authentic wagon train vacation through the Pawnee National Grassland in northeastern Colorado, where James Michener's "Centennial" was filmed. Guests will arrive on a Sunday afternoon and spend the next three nights living like the pioneers and traveling by covered wagon. They will be entertained with songs around the campfire and stories by professional storyteller Jo Ann Conter.

If you're hunting for signs of travelers lost in uncharted space, what better place to look than the land of flying saucers? That's where anthropologist Jerry Freeman of Pearblossom found himself when he set off to follow the trail of the Lost '49ers--the wagon train that ended up in the desert instead of the gold fields when it made a wrong turn about 150 years ago.

The "pioneer spirit" is making a comeback in the travel industry this year. Because the 150th anniversary of Oregon Trail migrations are being observed in various cities along the Trail from May through September, more travelers than ever are expected to sign up for summer wagon train trips. A number of outdoors-oriented tour operators are offering journeys along the Oregon Trail. Stretching 2,000 miles, the Oregon Trail began in Independence, Mo.

It's daybreak. The covered wagons are visible through a shroud of fog, but the morning's tranquility is deceptive. Overnight there has been trouble: Runaways. "It's the jitters," says VisionQuest staff member Tim O'Sullivan. His wagon train has taken 45 convicted teen-age felons on a bumpy, dusty trip over 2,400 miles and eight Western states. Nerves are, indeed, frazzled. It's a hard life, 10 months on the road.

Richard Lewis, 89, a TV producer who brought to the small screen such 1950s series as "Wagon Train" and "M Squad," died Monday of complications from melanoma at his home in Somers, N.Y., according to his son Jeffrey. As a producer and executive producer for Revue Productions and then Universal Television, Lewis worked on "M Squad," a police drama starring Lee Marvin that ran from 1957 to 1960, and "Wagon Train," a western anthology featuring Ward Bond and John McIntire that aired from 1957 to 1965.

"Faith and Betrayal" tells the remarkable story of Jean Rio Baker Pearce, an intrepid woman who converted to Mormonism in England, immigrated to America in 1851 and traveled to Utah by wagon train, then moved on to California after abandoning her Mormon faith.

Allen H. Miner, 86, a writer, director and producer who worked on such television series as "Wagon Train," "Perry Mason" and "The Untouchables," died Jan. 4 of natural causes in San Marcos, Calif. A Yale University graduate in fine arts, Miner was a combat photographer during World War II, making newsreel footage of beachhead battles in the South Pacific. His camera recorded Gen. Douglas MacArthur's landing in the Philippines.

Just three days from the commemorative journey's end, Boyd Gardner sat atop Boballen, the sturdy steed that carried him 800 miles across the deserts of the Southwest. Somewhere outside Hesperia, the 69-year-old cowboy stopped his horse to explain why this Mormon wagon train from Salt Lake City to San Bernardino, a reenactment of the original one 150 years ago, was so trying.

Volvo Cars of North America is making its move from New Jersey to California the old-fashioned way: via wagon train. Of course, these wagons aren't Conestogas. Volvo North America President Vic Doolan is leading a caravan of 23 V70 Cross Country station wagons, all driven by relocating employees, on a six-day trek that includes public-relations stops at select Volvo dealers along the way. The Volvistas will leave the former headquarters in Rockleigh, N.J.

When you think about it, Las Vegas is the one place these folks may not stand out. But they will be easy to spot at any other point along the 800-mile trail between Salt Lake City and San Bernardino. Just look for more than 200 Mormons, dressed in pioneer garb, traveling in covered wagons.

Willie Keil's pickled body was strange cargo, even on the Oregon Trail in 1855, where unusual sights were commonplace. Willie was 19 that spring in Bethel, Mo., and excitedly looked forward to joining his family on the great migration that opened the West and changed the course of American history. When Willie took sick with cholera and died, his father, William Keil, a self-proclaimed physician and preacher, kept his promise to take his eldest son to the Oregon Territories.

After a hand-stitched title card announces the year and place as 1845 Oregon, "Meek's Cutoff" shows the slow, laborious process of a small wagon train moving across open country. A river is crossed, water gathered, clothes wrung out, cookware scrubbed. Then, as one shot dissolves slowly into another, one barren landscape fading in from the last, the wagons and their guide seem to roll right across an expanse of open sky, an image at once rustic, fragile and mystical. "Meek's Cutoff" is by all technical definitions a western but also clearly something more.

Bump along on an authentic wagon train vacation through the Pawnee National Grassland in northeastern Colorado, where James Michener's "Centennial" was filmed. Guests will arrive on a Sunday afternoon and spend the next three nights living like the pioneers and traveling by covered wagon. They will be entertained with songs around the campfire and stories by professional storyteller Jo Ann Conter.

The Official California Trail Gold Rush Wagon Train of the 49ers, which aims to re-create the 2,300-mile journey from Missouri to California, sets out on April 4 from St. Charles, Mo., and is to arrive Sept. 2 in Sacramento. The wagon train, organized by the Morris Carter family, which ran a similar nonprofit event in 1993 along the pioneer Oregon Trail, will mark the 150th anniversary of the California Gold Rush. Along the way, cities will host historic celebrations linked to the trail.