It was in the Spring of 1851 when the letter from the Western Territories arrived on the doorsteps of Rafe McCade's cabin in central Kentucky. The letter was from Rafe's brother, Colin, asking him to leave his worn-out Kentucky farm and bring his family to join him in the Rocky Mountains where the land is free, the valleys are green and the Ponderosa pines are tall and majestic. Rafe and his wife Dora are captivated as they read Colin's letter and in just a few short weeks they set off with their thirteen-year-old son in a covered wagon to St. Louis where they will pick up the Sante Fe Trail to reach their destination. The journey westward in the 1800s was hard, especially on women and children, but Dora proves that she's a woman to be reckoned with when faced with the harsh realities of the American Frontier, and her faith, spunk, and grit along the trail will become the stuff that legends are made of.