Living in the Gap ~ Guest Blogging Day

Photo Courtesy of Evgeni Dinev/freedigitalphotos.net

I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. John 17:14 NIV

We were in the car a couple of weeks back, on our way home from Lake Tahoe and we passed the sign on I80 which read "Emigrant Gap."  Having recently visited the museum on Donner Pass, and been freshly familiarized with the tragic story in America's history of the Donner Party, I started thinking about what the Emigrant Gap actually represented.

I started to research "Emigrant Gap" and found that it actually is a city in California.  But, along with that, I found out that, according to the Office of Historic Preservation, 

The development of discovery of gold in California is due in no small measure to the men and women who came by the California Emigrant Trail and who stayed to build our state. No other method of entry can parallel it in danger, privation, fortitude and romance, nor is anything more closely associated in the mind of the average American with the Gold Rush than the covered wagon.  (accessed on-line 11/5/14 at No. 403 Historic Landmark)

The early American emigrants who braved a new and unknown world set out on a journey which they knew would not be easy.  They had heard the promises of possibilities, and they knew that the road would be beyond difficult.  They left behind family and friends with the understanding that they would likely never see them again. 

Read more about the inspirational pioneers of the West...