Danger at the Haunted Gate Read online

  Contents

  * * *

  Title Page

  Contents

  Copyright

  Map of the Oregon Trail

  Go West, Live the Adventure

  Chimney Rock: June 11, 1850

  Page 11

  Page 19

  Page 21

  Page 23

  Page 25

  Page 27

  Page 31

  Page 33

  Page 35

  Page 40

  Page 43

  Page 47

  Page 50

  Page 55

  Page 57

  Page 60

  Page 65

  Page 67

  Page 70

  Page 75

  Page 77

  Page 79

  Page 83

  Page 85

  Page 87

  Page 93

  Page 95

  Page 98

  Page 101

  Page 106

  Page 108

  Page 110

  Page 113

  Page 118

  Page 122

  Page 126

  Page 129

  Page 131

  Page 134

  Page 140

  Page 142

  Page 146

  Page 148

  Devil’s Gate: July 5, 1850

  Guide to the Trail

  Dangers!

  The Legend of Devil’s Gate

  Map of the Journey from Chimney Rock to Devil’s Gate

  Finding Your Way

  Sample Chapter from THE SEARCH FOR SNAKE RIVER

  Buy the Book

  Read More from the Oregon Trail Series

  Connect with HMH on Social Media

  Copyright © 2018 by HMH IP Company Unlimited Company. THE OREGON TRAIL and associated logos and design are trademarks of HMH IP Company Unlimited Company.

  All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [email protected] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

  hmhco.com

  Cover art © 2018 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  Cover art by Gustavo Viselner

  The display text was set in Pixel-Western, Press Start 2P, and Slim Thin Pixelettes.

  Illustrations by June Brigman, Yancey Labat, Ron Wagner, Hi-Fi Color Design, and Walden Font Co.

  ISBN 978-1-328-55001-9 paper over board

  ISBN 978-1-328-54997-6 paperback

  eISBN 978-1-328-56092-6

  v1.0818

  GO WEST

  Live the Adventure

  You are a young pioneer headed by wagon train to Oregon Territory in the year 1850. You’ve already traveled almost six hundred miles from Independence, Missouri, to Chimney Rock, in what is now Nebraska. You and your family are on the second leg of your journey across the wild frontier—and you’re aiming to reach Devil’s Gate, mysterious cliffs in what later becomes Wyoming. Once you get there, your journey West will be nearly half over.

  For the last six weeks, you’ve walked beside your covered wagon for fifteen miles a day along the Oregon Trail. You can’t ride inside, because your wagon is full of supplies for the long journey.

  By the time you’d gotten to Chimney Rock, you’d braved river crossings, wild animal encounters, and disease. You’d learned to trade with merchants and Native American people, and also encountered snakes and bears. But that’s only the start of your journey—and there are still months of adventures between you and Oregon.

  * * *

  Only one route will get you safely through this book to Devil’s Gate, but there are twenty-two possible endings, full of near-victories, dangers, and surprises. Along the way, no matter what path you choose, you will experience natural disasters, unpredictable weather, sickness, and other hazards.

  You’re stuck in quicksand. How will you get out?

  A tornado strikes! What can you do?

  A herd of buffalo is stampeding your way!

  Before you begin, make sure to read the Guide to the Trail at the back of the book, starting on page 154. It’s filled with important information you’ll need to make wise choices.

  On the Trail, you’ll get advice from friends, Native American people, or from Ma and Pa—but also trust your own judgment when you make decisions. Use the resources you have and you’ll find your way to the haunted gate!

  Will you survive?

  It’s in your hands!

  Ready?

  BLAZE A TRAIL TO THE

  HAUNTED GATE!

  You hear the familiar blare of the morning bugle, which stirs you from a deep slumber.

  “How can it be time to wake up already?” Samuel moans loudly.

  “I feel like I just went to sleep,” adds Hannah.

  You tug a feather from your sleeping mat and tickle Hannah’s nose. Your little sister sneezes as your kid brother giggles and rolls away. Samuel hurries out of the tent to avoid being tickled, too.

  Your whole family is awake now, though it’s barely light outside. You all know the routine. You’ll help Ma build a fire to cook breakfast, while Pa takes down the tent and repacks your covered wagon. Samuel will milk the cow, and Hannah will help fill the heavy iron kettle with water for coffee.

  “May I have another johnnycake?” you ask Ma when everyone sits around the campfire to eat. You’re extra hungry since you didn’t want much supper last night, and you know you have a long day of hiking beside the wagon ahead of you.

  “Of course,” says Ma, as she slides another patty onto your tin plate, along with a chunk of bacon. You sigh as you bite into the salty cured meat. You’ve been eating bacon almost every day for six weeks now. It used to be one of your favorite foods before your family started traveling along the Oregon Trail, but now you wish for a fresh tomato or a fried egg. Ma has noticed that you’ve been avoiding bacon lately, and she encourages you to eat it.

  “You need to eat for strength, my love,” she tells you with a smile.

  You glance at the sunburned faces of your family and realize you must look the same as they do. You’ve traveled almost six hundred miles since you left Independence, Missouri, back in May.

  The journey has been long, with fifteen miles of walking every day. You’ve learned to live with the pain of the blisters on your feet and the ache in your legs. The wagon is too full of stuff for you to ride in, so there’s no choice but to keep hiking day after day.

  The trip has been exciting, too. So far your wagon train has mostly crossed flat plains, but you’ve also seen some huge rock formations and gorgeous waterfalls. You’ve met Native American people from the Osage and Otoe-Missouria tribes, and even been face-to-face with a grizzly bear! The bear was more excitement than you wanted. Best of all, you’ve made friends with other kids in your wagon train. Eliza and Joseph, whose father Caleb is the wagon train captain, have been the most fun.

  “Roll the wagons!” Caleb shouts.

  You scramble to wipe your plate clean. Hannah runs to place the dishes in the wagon, while Ma throws dirt on the fire to put it out.

  The first of the wagons starts to move, and Pa drives your oxen team to the middle of the line. You’re glad you’re not at the end today, where the dust from the other ten wagons is the worst. Sometimes it’s so thick, you cough for hours.

  It’s a clear day, and you can still see Chimney Rock in the distance behind you. The tall, pointy rock is just as impressive as the first time you spotted it, several days ago. Your family had a good time camping at its base, and you carved your name on the rock, like other pioneers did before you.

  Best of all, Pa used his skills as a carpenter to build thing
s for others on the Trail in exchange for a cow, which Hannah named Daisy. Now your wagon train has three cows, which provide fresh milk. Even better, Ma hung a small container of milk on the wagon yesterday. All the shaking and bumping of the wagon turned it into creamy butter, a real treat on your johnnycakes this morning.

  “Guess what’s coming up ahead?” Joseph says, as he falls into step next to you. You know that the mountainous part of the Trail is beginning, and you’ve been on the lookout for the next landmark.

  “Scotts Bluff,” you reply knowingly, since you’ve been studying Pa’s guidebook.

  “That’s right,” Joseph says. “But do you know how it got its name?”

  “How?” you ask. Joseph is always full of information. When you first met him, you thought he was a know-it-all, so you didn’t really like him. But you soon realized that he isn’t a show-off. He’s just really smart and helpful, and he likes to share what he knows.

  “Scotts Bluff was named for Hiram Scott, a fur trapper,” Joseph tells you.

  “So?” you say. You know that fur trappers make money by trapping animals and selling their skins.

  “Well, Scott got really sick out in the wilderness, and the other trappers he was with thought that since he was about to die anyway, they could just leave him alone and continue their trip without him. That was sixty miles from the bluff,” Joseph says.

  You shiver, remembering how you’ve passed lots of graves along the Trail. You know that the risks of your travels include disease and death, but it’s something you don’t let yourself think about too much.

  Joseph continues: “Scott didn’t die where the trappers left him, and he crawled all the way to the bluff. His bones were found there months later. That’s why Scotts Bluff is named after him.”

  You stop for a minute, and make a face as you imagine that terrible journey.

  “What does Scotts Bluff look like?”

  “I don’t know,” replies Joseph. “But I heard it’s not easy to get through.”

  That night, as you lay in your tent, you think about the scary story Joseph told you. You shiver under your warm blanket, grateful for the sounds of Samuel and Hannah’s breathing beside you, because it soothes you to sleep.

  The next afternoon, you see steep cliffs rising above the plains, and you know you have almost reached Scotts Bluff.

  Caleb calls a wagon train meeting when you halt for the afternoon break. You listen quietly and chew on a piece of buffalo jerky, while the grown-ups talk.

  “We have a choice,” explains Caleb. “Either we try a shortcut through a gap in the cliffs, or we go the steadier, longer way around them.”

  “What is the disadvantage to going around them?” Pa asks.

  “We’d lose a few days,” says Caleb.

  “And if we go through?” Ma asks.

  “We should be able to make it in a day, but the route is dangerous and unknown. There is no map.”

  Everyone starts to debate. You’ve been rushing to try to get to Independence Rock for the big Fourth of July celebration, and no one wants to delay. But will traveling through the bluffs be too difficult?

  What do you decide to do?

  If you go through Scotts Bluff, turn to page 40

  If you go around Scotts Bluff, turn to page 118

  I think we should probably lighten the load on these animals,” Pa says. You help him sort through the wagon to see what makes sense to leave behind. The decisions you make now will impact the rest of the trip, so Ma and Pa are being extra careful. The heaviest things in the wagon are Pa’s tools, spare wagon parts, and the food.

  “Based on how much we’ve been using, I think we can make it with half of this bacon, and less of this flour,” Ma says, pointing to the fifty-pound sacks of flour. Pa nods in agreement.

  “Bacon is only a penny a pound at trading posts and we’re tired of eating it anyway,” Ma adds. You think about the tons of bacon you’ve seen abandoned by other trailblazers along the way.

  You help stack all of the things you are leaving behind in a pile. Maybe someone else will come along and pick up something they need.

  “Well, that does it. I think the oxen will start moving a bit faster,” Pa declares. Over the next couple days, you notice that the lighter wagon doesn’t seem to be helping. The oxen are moving even slower than before, and your wagon starts to lag behind the rest of the wagons.

  “Let’s stop for a rest,” Ma says hopefully. But as you take a break, the oxen just sink to their knees. They never get up again. Now you don’t know if you’re going to keep going, either.

   THE END

  Return to page 131

  Mrs. Smith doesn’t seem at all interested in eating, so you take the food and water from her. There’s no point in letting the food go to waste, so you eat it before gulping down the water.

  After eating and drinking, you play with the little boy for a while, until he finally gets tired enough to fall asleep. Meanwhile Mrs. Smith rocks the baby until she finally stops crying and falls asleep, and then Mrs. Smith herself falls asleep.

  “Thank you so much for your kindness,” Mr. Smith says, walking you back to your camp. “It really means a lot to us.”

  The next morning when you wake up, you feel cramps in your stomach, and wonder if it was something you ate. Could it have been the beans and bacon? Or maybe it was the water? You wonder where they filled their water barrel. You know not all families are as careful as Ma to always have clean water.

  At first, you try to ignore the pain. But the next day, you get diarrhea, and it won’t stop. You don’t feel like eating, and you can’t seem to keep any food down anyway. Over the next few days, you develop a fever and get weaker.

  Finally, you collapse. You die of dysentery.

   THE END

  Return to page 50

  You run under the tree and huddle together. The rain is coming down in heavy sheets, and you and Eliza are getting soaked. Loud claps of thunder shake you to your core.

  “Do you think we should stay here?” asks Eliza.

  “Let’s wait for a little while for the rain to calm down and then we’ll make a run for it,” you say. Eliza nods in agreement.

  The thunder and lighting ease up after a few minutes, and you decide this is your chance. You grab Eliza’s hand and run out from under the tree, but Eliza slips, and you both fall. You look out and see a bolt of lighting only a few feet away from you. Then thunder booms so hard you cover your ears.

  “Let’s go!” you yell, pulling Eliza up behind you. You run into the open field, your heart pounding. Camp is within sight when suddenly you are knocked to the ground by a tremendous force. You feel like you are spinning, and start to gag. You can’t feel or move your legs at all. You try to open your eyes to look, but all you see is whiteness. You’ve always wondered what it would feel like to be struck by lightning. Now you know, but just long enough to realize it’s even worse than you imagined.

   THE END

  Return to page 118

  You see the dust cloud from the stampede growing in the distance, and the thunderous sound is getting louder. The ground beneath your feet starts to shake. Someone from a few wagons behind you shouts, “GO!”

  Everyone scrambles, as if in a giant race. Today your family is at the back of the wagon train. As the commotion begins, Pa races back to you.

  “Move! Quick!” he yells, throwing Hannah and Samuel into the wagon along with Archie.

  Pa hollers at the oxen to move faster. All the wagons race at a frantic pace and shake violently as the herd approaches.

  Archie jumps out of the wagon. Hannah tries to grab him and almost falls out after him. Your dog takes off, running faster than you can.

  “Let him go,” you pant. You grab Ma’s hand as she stumbles over her skirt trying to keep up with you.

  The buffalo are so close you can smell them. Their hooves are the loudest and scariest sound you have ever heard in your life. Suddenly, your wagon flips over and everything goes f
lying.

  “Hannah! Samuel!” yells Ma.

  You find your brother and sister in a pile of your things. The wagon wheels are still spinning next to them. You cover them with your body and close your eyes as the stampeding herd heads straight for you. You brace yourself for the impact of the hooves and hope it is over quickly. This is not quite the wagon race you had in mind.

   THE END

  Return to page 57

  You head over to the fort the next morning with Pa to look for George. Pa is leading Daisy, who your family has decided to trade for the packing mules. You’ve also got a few of Pa’s extra tools and a saddle you don’t really need.

  George gets up from the table where he’s sitting with some other traders. There are mugs of coffee on the table and some johnnycakes, which he offers you.

  “No, thank you,” Pa says. “We’ve had our morning meal.”

  “Let’s see what you have for me,” George says. He rummages through Pa’s tools and inspects the saddle. Finally he stops and turns to Pa.

  “It’s a deal.”

  George shakes hands with Pa and goes around to the side of the building, leading Daisy away. You feel a pang of sadness as you watch the cow leave. No more fresh milk and butter for your family, and no more cream, either.

  A few moments later George returns with the two packing mules. They are a little smaller than you had expected, but George presents them proudly.