Jenny Jacobson woke up on a spring morning in 1850 thinking her family had forgotten that day was her birthday.
Later that morning, she would find herself in a mule-drawn wagon containing all their worldly possessions, leaving their known world behind.
They would be part of a wagon train that would hear their wagon master, Jake Buckhorn, start each day on the trail with a blast on his bugle and the shout of "Westward ho!"
Jenny and her best friend, Alice, would have to cover over two thousand miles before winter storms closed what would become known as the Oregon Trail. They would cross raging rivers, meet friendly and hostile Indians, endure weeks of parched prairie, and traverse mountains buried in snow.
They depended on self-reliance, their fellow pioneers, and a deep-seated faith that supplied a most vital asset in their search for a new home. That asset was hope.