'The Oregon Trail', with John Wayne

[Story]

John Wayne was the archetypal screen cowboy, embodying the rough independence of the American west for generations of film fans. Now, newly discovered still photographs offer fresh insight into a western he made that was last seen more than three-quarters of a century ago.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24407455

In the film Wayne plays John Delmont, a retired army captain who falls in love with a frontier woman played by Ann Rutherford, who later appears in Gone With the Wind. The plot hinges on the discovery of a journal bound in black that once belonged to Delmont's father.

Reading the diary, Delmont learns that his father has been killed or was left to die by a renegade - and vows to hunt down the killer.

 

[rocketeer]

Not seen this film but is it in that typical 'Times were tough but we got by' type of thing, when reality meant things were so much different.
Shame they have not made a feature of the Donner Party, things were bad there before the disaster in the mountains.