“The chronicle of the wagon train is the story of infant America. Early in the eighteenth century, settlers began moving inland. An endless procession of covered wagons loaded with household goods and supplies headed westward.” So begins the official souvenir program of the Bicentennial Wagon Train Pilgrimage to Pennsylvania. The program describes the journey of covered wagons and participants from the contiguous forty-eight states that traveled west to east along historic routes, converging at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, on the Bicentennial, July 4, 1976.

Keith Kreykes of Oshawa Township was selected to be the Wagon Master for the Upper Great Lakes Route and was later appointed National Wagon Master for the entire Wagon Train. Kreykes, along with his wife, Gale, accompanied the Wagon Train on horseback on the 1,650-mile trek.

The Kreykes’s son, Fred Kreykes, recently donated his parents’ collection of items relating to the Bicentennial Wagon Train, likely comprising the most extensive compilation of materials on the subject in the country.

Documents concerning logistics, publicity materials, and even a Triple-A Trip Tik provide information about the planning and organization of the Wagon Train. Newspaper clippings, photographs, and certificates of appreciation tell the story of activities at campsites, and of festivities and the warm welcome given by residents of towns along the route. Cards and correspondence, and the by-laws of the National Wagon Train Association, 1977, reflect the personal relationships forged on the trip and the formal establishment of an organization to commemorate the Wagon Train.

An undated newspaper clipping published as Keith and Gale were finally heading home reported that “Kreykes, his wife has been quoted as saying, aged five years during the time it took the wagonmaster to get the Great Lake’s contingent of wagons from Minnesota to Valley Forge, Pa. The wagonmaster, 54, lost weight, suffered from lack of sleep and needed X-rays at a hospital after being knocked from his horse by a car.” The leadership of Keith and Gale Kreykes is remembered by residents of St. Peter with pride.