The Fields of Eden — Richard S. Wheeler

In the mid-1840s, the trails west from the Missouri frontier were clogged with pioneers searching for a new life in a remote land they thought was another Eden.

In The Fields of Eden Richard S. Wheeler follows the lives of several settlers who put down roots in the lush new Oregon country after a harrowing trip across the continent. The Oregon country is nominally controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company, which does not want American settlement. Even so, its magnificent chief factor, Dr. John McLoughlin, a giant of a man in every way, generously rescues and provisions the desperate immigrants as they float down the Columbia. In time they repay him-- unkindly.

This is a story of people who fought to overcome their shattered dreams and made possible the settlement of Old Oregon, and the story of one towering man who helped them, no matter what the cost to him.