Rinker Buck puffs on a corncob pipe while gazing upon the Damariscotta River. It has been almost four years since he and his brother, Nick Buck, a local carpenter, returned from their four-month-long covered wagon journey on the Oregon Trail, becoming the first people to cross the trail in this manner in 100 years.
Buck will present his book about the experience, “The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey,” at Maine Coast Book Shop Sunday, July 5, beginning at 11 a.m. The event will include covered wagon rides, a barbecue by Damariscotta River Grill, and a slideshow presentation and reading by Buck.
After long days of taking turns driving the team of mules with his brother, Buck would write about the experience under the light of a Coleman lantern, filling two thick notebooks with 40,000 words by the end of his trip.
“My motivation for the book was as historically minded and intellectually passionate as the adventure,” Buck said.
Buck’s pre-journey research included 50 pioneer journals, in which he found that a large number of Americans braved the trail for religious purposes and saw a reflection of the country’s current disputes.
“We need to understand the antecedents to the problems we have in the U.S.A. today,” Buck said. “Everyone’s upset about the Muslims today because they’re here and they’re going to change America.”
Buck said reading what the pioneers wrote about Mormons and Roman Catholics puts current religious contentions into perspective.
“The story of America is on that trail,” Buck said.
Noting that trekking the Oregon Trail is nothing like a John Wayne movie, Buck emphasized the important role that women played on the trail. He said the first person to cross the trail was Narcissa Whitman, a white, female missionary who wrote letters debunking myths of dangerous rivers and hostile Native Americans.
“If she hadn’t crossed, Americans never would have,” Buck said.
Extensive as it was, Buck’s historical research did not prepare him for the journey’s physical and technical side. Buck and his brother experienced broken wheels, a flipped cart, and rebellious mules throughout the trip.
“Half the stuff we needed to know we learned along the way,” Buck said, though he said his brother’s expertise with tools and horses was incredibly helpful.
Even so, the two had to improvise when their second cart for extra baggage, which trailed behind the front, flipped in Nebraska, 42 miles from any town, and when their wheels snapped halfway through climbing the Rocky Mountains.
Buck plans to share entertaining parts of his story when he presents “The Oregon Trail” at Maine Coast Book Shop on Sunday.
A longtime visitor to Damariscotta and now a property owner in Newcastle, Buck said the Maine Coast Book Shop is probably the best book store in the state, in his opinion.
Out of Buck’s 11 siblings, six or seven followed his mother in moving to Midcoast Maine, while Buck first became familiar with the area when he attended Bowdoin College.
“Damariscotta is now kind of my second home,” Buck said.
Buck’s writing career consisted of 25 years as a journalist for publications including New York Magazine and Life Magazine. He has written four other books, including “Flight of Passage: A Memoir,” about his 1966 flight across America in a Piper Cub that he and his brothers restored and flew as teenagers.
“The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey” was published Tuesday, June 30.
