An exciting trip to the mailbox yesterday yielded my recently-ordered copy of “Walking the Trail of Death” by one of my favorite professors, Dr. Keith Drury. I received the book via the online publisher, LuLu.
Today, most of my afternoon was spent reading the entire book cover-to-cover! I hadn’t even realized that Dr. “Coach” Drury published this book until I heard about it from my buddy Jason Denniston who also happened to walk a few days of the trail with Coach back in 2006.
The book covers Coach Drury’s journal entries during the entire 660-mile journey as well as two other journals from the original journeymen. The trail follows the route of the Potawatami Indians that were removed from their homes in Indiana in 1838 and “relocated” to Kansas by the US Government.
The book literally allows the reader to journey with Coach Drury along the 660-miles and enjoy some (not all, he says) of the adventures as he journals along the way. I appreciated the historical accounts throughout each journal-entry but found myself longing for more detail of Coach Drury’s personal accounts! Stories of those he met up with along the way, places he found to spend the night, those who hiked part of the journey with him, and other partially-documented stories left me wanting more!
I recommend the book to anyone interested in the original story of the Potawatami “relocation” back in 1838 and anyone with a hunger for adventure without leaving the comfort of a reading-chair during this quick-read!
