Gunnar's Odyssey

By 1840, travel on the Santa Fe Trail was well underway. One of the major gathering places for the nearly 800 mile trek was Independence, Missouri. Here, many merchants and traders formed wagon trains for safety in numbers to ship their trade goods to Santa Fe and beyond. The lure of adventure and opportunity saw many young men leave their families to sign on with a caravan. Gunnar Mann was one such youth. He left tranquil Springfield, Illinois, to join one of these wagon trains that would travel the perilous trail. Once on the trail Gunnar would experience days of boredom but there were times when he found himself immersed in the violence and cruelty that was the southwest. It didn't take long for Gunnar to grow physically and mentally tough for his youthful nineteen years. He had to. Sometimes it is kill or be killed. Staying alive was his biggest concern but he had another that plagued him all the while he was absent from Springfield. Gunnar left his girlfriend, eighteen year-old Sue Ellen Whitney, to satisfy his passion for adventure . . . . . but only after her assurance she would await his return. Exchanges of letters saw them not received in a timely manner or not at all. They could only guess what the other was up to. Would she be there for him when he returned? He would have to make it back to Springfield to find out.