The Oregon Trail (Dover Value Editions)

Book Description

Keen observations and a graphic style characterize the author's remarkable record of a vanishing frontier. Detailed accounts of the hardships experienced while traveling across mountains and prairies; vibrant portraits of emigrants and Western wildlife; and vivid descriptions of Indian life and culture. A classic of American frontier literature.

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The West as it was when The White Man first saw it; a vivid, personal account

Customer Reviews:

Just what I expected.......2007-05-13

I ordered this book based on the film, " The Oregan Trail," which I enjoyed watching. The book is a good follow-up to the movie, making much of the content even more real for me.

The Wild West.......2006-10-13

Parkman's travelogue on the Great Plains is a major work of life among the Native Americans. His descriptions are honest and capture a society that was fading even while he was writing. The book had a major impact on the way that non-westerners saw the Great Plains. This was both good and bad. Parkman wrote through the lens of a Boston aristocrat and was full of prejudices against those who did not meet his standards. This was dangerous in that many who read about the "backwardness" of the Native Americans used this as justification for "civilizing" them. Although this was probably not Parkman's intention, it was a consequence of his writing. In addition, he promoted the hunting of buffalo for sport, which led to the decimation of the buffalo heards on the Plains.

Another major issue with this book is that, in spite of its title, it is not about the Oregon Trail. Parkman went no further than the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and he did all in his power to dissociate himself from the pioneers moving along the Oregon Trail. If you are looking for a history of the trail, this book will not satisfy your needs.

However, in spite of the misleading title and the prejudices that surface throughout the book, it is still a fine piece of writing that opens up a world that has been lost to today's readers. Read it and enjoy your travels into another time and place.

Parkman the master of Historians.......2006-09-01

In a day when "historians" make comment on the long dead or events from the confines of their apartments, Francis Parkman is the person who actually experienced the history he wrote about. There is no political correctness in Parkman and he describes savages, French, frontiersmen and Mormons exactly as they were without apology.
This work is a masterpiece everyone should read and be a guidebook to modern historians who spend more time working a political end and getting in the way of history rather than letting history tell it's truthful tale.
Parkman is not just the historian or recorder of events. He is the bard of Sioux myth, the geologist, biologist and countless other things describing flora, fauna and weather. He is complete in having that air of Boston social elite in beginning his journey and returning from the plains an American having tasted, smelled and breathed the savage world and revealed the eastern thoughts on how that world would evolve for the next 60 years.
Parkman is remarkable and the best compliment for this book is to recommend that readers search for other Parkman histories to read as they are real.
I am currently in his wonderful Montecalm and Wolfe series on the history of Canada which actually created America. If you have children, share Parkman's history with them as he will make it come alive for them.
As you can see by all of the lengthy reviews, Francis Parkman invokes a great deal of thought and emotion in his histories which transfers to the reader.

Generally exciting account of the Oregon Trail.......2005-12-04

The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman is an account which further enforces the history of the Oregon Trail we had learned about in [U.S. History] class. The book portrays what it must have been like to travel on the Trail, never knowing what the next day would bring. The buffalo hunting which took place throughout the book became monotonous and boring after the first exciting few, but other than that repetitiveness, the journey was well depicted. I especially enjoyed Parkman's in-depth descriptions given to the reader of the people he meets on his journey and his observations on their actions as well. His vivid imagery of scenes from nature such as animals, prairie landscapes, and the weather, place the reader right next to Parkman in his adventuresome expedition. There are some dull, repetitive points in the observations made by the author, but aside from that his autobiographical telling of his journey is unforgettable.

A Classic for a Reason.......2005-03-12

The Oregon Trail still stands as a classic of American literature and of a rapidly vanishing past. Written as an account of a summer he spent traveling the Oregon Trail, Parkman captures the details of communal Native American life with no sentimentality, just hard reality. Even though written in 1846, Parkman is amazingly precise in his estimation of the vanishing frontier and Native American way of life. At times, he is rather callous toward the Native Americans, but this also reflects his times and environment. Highly recommended.

Women's Voices from the Oregon Trail: The Times that Tried Women's Souls and a Guide to Women's History Along the Oregon Trail (Women of the West) (Women of the West)

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Emotionally Written, Wonderful Book
Emotionally written. Wonderful book.
Wonderful
Interesting women's history

Women's Voices from the Oregon Trail: The Times that Tried Women's Souls and a Guide to Women's History Along the Oregon Trail (Women of the West) (Women of the West)
Susan G. Butruille
Manufacturer: Tamarack Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ASIN: 0963483986

Book Description

WOMEN'S VOICES FROM THE OREGON TRAIL narrates the lives and evokes the voices of the women who traveled the 2,000 mile trail to Oregon 150 years ago. The book artfully blends women's diaries, songs, history, poetry, recipes, and quilts. Susan Butruille first takes us to the Midwestern farms where most of the women came from, then on their brave and outlandish trek, and finally to the strange and bountiful land where a new home was supposed to be.

Customer Reviews:

Emotionally Written, Wonderful Book.......2003-11-24

Susan Butruille has captured the feeling behind the women's hard covered exterior on the Oregon Trail. This book touched me deeplyin the way that I cried during reading of the book and thought about the book many times after reading it. I read this book in two days and since then have visioned it while living my life here in 2002. I have felt so much for the reallife women of the diaries in this book that I talked about it with my husband and simple things that used to get him or me in a tizzy before I read this book now seem so trivial and unimportant. I think that this book changed my life, the way I look at life in a way that I appreciate way more than I did before I read this book and think much about how wagon women would solve a problem that I have daily and if they would have had that problem (via computers or toasters) at all because everything was so much more primitive, necessary and simple YET hard and trying and exhausting back then.
In two words I have for anyone thinking about buying this book is PLEASE DO ..... it will enrich your life. It did Mine.

Emotionally written. Wonderful book........2002-09-18

Wonderful.......2001-02-16

This is a poignant and moving book. It is well constructed. It addresses the daily activities, as well as the overall significance, of women on the Oregon Trail. The book weaves together (and is centered around) excerpts from diaries and other first hand writings. Hearing the stories from those who experienced the journey was an emotional and educational treat.

Interesting women's history.......2000-06-14

If you are interested in the day to day lives of women as they walked the Oregon Trail, you'll enjoy this book.

Francis Parkman : The Oregon Trail / The Conspiracy of Pontiac (The Library of America)

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Classic History
The "Original" American West - in Two Volumes

Francis Parkman : The Oregon Trail / The Conspiracy of Pontiac (The Library of America)
Francis Parkman
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0940450542

Book Description

"From boyhood," wrote Francis Parkman, "I had a taste for the woods and the Indians." His lifelong fascination with these American subjects are brilliantly recorded in "The Oregon Trail" and "The Conspiracy of Pontiac," his two earliest works. Parkman began his travels to the northern wilderness during his student years at Harvard in the 1840s, then went west after graduation. His first and most famous book, "The Oregon Trail," is a vivid account of his adventures on the open frontier and his encounters with Plains Indians in their last era of free, nomadic life. "The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada," Parkman's first historical work, portrays the fierce conflict that erupted along the Great Lakes in the aftermath of the Seven Years' War and chronicles the defeats in which both the eastern Indians and their forest "received their final doom."

Customer Reviews:

Classic History.......2005-05-24

Francis Parkman was an eccentric Harvard graduate whose life work was the struggle of the British and French for North America (although he is better known to the general reader for
his youthful exploration of the West described in The Oregon Trail). He was fluent in French and was assiduous in his investigations of primary sources. He also had a gift for lyrical narration (see the last paragraph of The Conspiracy of Pontiac, which describes the fate of the "forest hero").
His perspective on the American Indian was realistic. He knew
the Indian and respected him, but also realized his flaws and this has made him persona non grata among some modern circles.
That's what describing an Indian village as a "motley concourse of barbarians" will do! However, the reader may learn for himself in this book the fate of the captives from the fort at Michillimackinac and that of the pathetic one-room schoolhouse in the Ohio River valley and see if the 18th century tribes did not truly have a potential for utter savagery.

The "Original" American West - in Two Volumes.......2000-06-23

This volume is a reader's delight, for it presents not one but two of Francis Parkman's classic works: The Oregon Trail and The Conspiracy of Pontiac. Rightly hailed as America's greatest historian, in The Oregon Trail Francis Parkman relates a journey to the 1840's American West - undertaken for the express purpose of living among "real" American Indian tribes of the Great Plains before their way of life passed forever. By this experience Parkman hoped to better understand and relate what eastern tribes had so tragically fought for and lost in the preceding century's struggle for the continent. The Oregon Trail is a great book in its own right, and has been reviewed by this reader previously (see more in "About Me/Other Reviews"), but the primary focus of this review is Parkman's study of a crucial chapter in the development of North America as we know it today: the disastrous consequences France's defeat in Canada would bring to the remaining eastern tribes. For this event would inexorably lead to the explosion of the English colonies across lands heretofore held by them under French "dominion".

While the Iroquois Nations had long maintained an uneasy alliance with the English as they pushed their way into the western reaches of New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, those further west knew what the defeat of the French would bring: utter destruction. The Ottawa, Ojibwa, Pottawattami, Delaware, Shawnee, Illinois, Sauk and Foxes had long fought the intrusion of the arrogant and land-grabbing English from Quebec to the Mississippi. Pontiac himself had fought beside the Marquis de Montcalm as he tried in vain to save New France from ruin during the French & Indian War. But at last, in the mid-1700s France finally capitulated to her English rivals, her hold on the North American continent broken forever. The only task left to the conquerors was to make their way across the Great Lakes, into the valleys of the Ohio, and down the Mississippi into the Illinois country to make their claim upon the former French forts and trading houses. For a brief time a singular leader and a dozen nations blocked their way: Pontiac and his assembled allies.

Parkman sets the stage by briefly relating the history of France and England in America from the early 1600s-1760s, then meticulously details the source of the tribes' many grievances - grievances which would directly lead to Pontiac's bold attempt to decisively halt the English advance.

Though doomed to ultimate defeat against the onslaught of English guns and armies, traders and pioneers, for a short time Pontiac's initiative was remarkably successful. He brought war to nearly all of western America at the same time - from the siege at Detroit to the forests outside the gates of Niagara, from upper Michigan and Wisconsin to the Ohio valley, into western Pennsylvania, Virginia and New York, down the many rivers and tributaries leading into the Mississipi. A dozen forts fell before him and hundreds of miles of frontier settlements emptied in terror.

Parkman's work is perhaps the best chronicle of many of these tribes' last desperate fight for their lives and land. Those interested in the history of the struggles destined to come shortly to the tribes west of the Mississippi will derive much insight from Parkman's treatment of Pontiac's war. For his "conspiracy" was the original "last great battle" for the "American West" - 100 years before the battle for the further western Plains would come to an ignominious close. To understand Pontiac's war, the motives of both his people and the English and French, as well as the burgeoning force who would soon thereafter cast off their identity as "colonists" is to understand much of what would follow as American history.

Oregon Trail Stories: True Accounts of Life in a Covered Wagon

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Respectable, educative of western emigration

Oregon Trail Stories: True Accounts of Life in a Covered Wagon
David Klausmeyer
Manufacturer: Two Dot
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 076273082X

Book Description

Travel along the Oregon Trail with the pioneers who dared to "face the elephant" as they moved west in search of a new life. Compiled from the trail diaries and memoirs that document this momentous period in American history, Oregon Trail Stories is a fascinating look at the great American migration of the 19th century.

Customer Reviews:

Respectable, educative of western emigration.......2004-04-22

I always enjoy reading personal accounts of the Oregon/California Trail. Taken from actual diaries, letters, memoirs and reminisces, these are true to life experiences from the pioneers themselves. A few to mention, without being overly exhaustive would be:
Catherine Sager Pringle and her six siblings becoming orphans of the trail when in the course of twenty six days both parents died. They were then taken to and raised at the Whitman Mission in Washington.
Lucy Jane Hall Burnett's account of taking the disastrous Stephen Meek Cutoff.
The insightful David Campbell reminisces traveling to California. After burying their dead, they would have the cattle trample over the ground to deter any Indian tendencies of digging them up for clothing. Also, numerous brief battles in California for statehood are well described.
Patrick Breen's day to day experiences of being stranded for months in the Sierra Nevada Mountains with the Donner Party are harrowing.
James Longmire's memoirs of traveling over the continent are both entertaining and perceptive.
Excellent.

Covered Wagon Women 5: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1852 : The Oregon Trail (Covered Wagon Women)

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Stirring sunbonnet narratives

Covered Wagon Women 5: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1852 : The Oregon Trail (Covered Wagon Women)

Manufacturer: Bison Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0803272944

Book Description

Abigail Jane Scott was seventeen when she left Illinois with her family in the spring of 1852. Her record of the journey west is full of expressive detail: breakfasting in a snowstorm, walking behind the wagons to keep warm, tasting buffalo meat, trying to climb Independence Rock. She meets her future husband, Benjamin Duniway, at the end of the Oregon Trail and, in the years to come, finds fame as a writer and a leader of the suffrage movement in the Northwest. Her grandson, David Duniway, edited her trail diary for Covered Wagon Women.

This volume includes the equally vivid diaries of other women who rode the wagons in 1852. Polly Coon of Wisconsin recalls trading with the Indians. Martha Read, starting from Illinois, is particularly alert to the suffering of the animals, noting hundreds of dead cows and horses along the way. Cecilia Adams and Parthenia Blank, twin sisters from Illinois, jointly chronicle their once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Customer Reviews:

Stirring sunbonnet narratives.......2003-11-19

Once again, these diaries and letters of the "Covered Wagon Women" series detail the extraordinary stamina of early day pioneers traveling the Oregon Trail.
The year 1852 not only had the heaviest trail traffic westward, but it was also rife with hundreds of human cholera deaths. As Parthenia Blank solemnly relates, "it makes it seem very gloomy to us to see so many of the emigrants buried on the plains". At the end of her journey, Martha Read had counted 750 graves, "but I suppose that a small part, for there were so many campt off from the road and buried their dead".
Life on the trail also took its toll on livestock. Martha Read further notes the tally of "600 dead cattle and 50 horses" from "hollow horn"(anthrax), alkali water, poisonous plants, "want of good care", little food, lack of foot care, etc.
Even in the early stages while crossing the Iowa River, Polly Coon is quoted as saying, "What a brittle thread has life and how uncertain that another moment is ours" after witnessing three men drowning during the river fording.
Seventeen year old Abigail Jane Scott's lengthy diary is complete not only of daily routines, observations of the countryside and the many hardships associated with trail life, but also the vivid and harrowing descriptions of the deaths of her mother and brother during the journey. She further says, "If it wasn't for hope, the heart would fail".
Editing by Dr. Kenneth Holmes and David Duniway brilliant. Introduction by Dr. Ruth Moynihan excellent.

Devil's Gate: Owning the Land, Owning the Story

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Very Worthwhile Reading
History with a perceptive twist
Wyoming History

Devil's Gate: Owning the Land, Owning the Story
Tom Rea
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

ASIN: 0806137924

Book Description

Devil's Gate--the very name conjures difficult passage and portends a doubtful outcome. In this eloquent and captivating narrative, Tom Rea traces the history of the Sweetwater River valley in central Wyoming--a remote place that includes Devil's Gate, Independence Rock, and other sites along a storied stretch of the Oregon Trail--to show how legal ownership of a place can translate into owning its story.

Customer Reviews:

Very Worthwhile Reading.......2007-05-12

This well written book provides historical depth on the Oregon Trail as well as interesting reading that gets an important message across about historical truth. Highly recommend it.

History with a perceptive twist.......2007-03-22

At times history can be a Gatling gun of fact and speculation and cause the reader to separate truth from fiction. The underlying theme of Tom Rea's fine work is that given a certain geographical area (in this case Devil's Gate along Wyoming's Sweetwater River), it is the land itself that owns the true stories of space and time. People simply tell them, sometimes to fit their own needs.

Recruiting and interweaving stories from days gone by of this region, whether it be John Fremont mapping the territory, experiences of Oregon Trail emigrants, the Mormon handcarters, mid-nineteenth century Indian wars, Billy Owen's surveying or Hiram Chittenden's engineering for dam sites, to feuds with neighboring ranchers ("Cattle Kate" lynching), water rites, grazing laws, up to the present-day, this is a gifted undertaking of connecting historical meaning.

Enjoyed the stories. Benefited from the insightful viewpoint as well.

Wyoming History.......2007-03-16

This books does a good job of summerizing many historic events in Wyoming's past to a very unique and sometimes forgotten place. It was interesting to read accounts of some of these historic events and some not so historic and obscure events and how this country tied into them. It was an enjoyable read of history but also posed an underlying troubling trend today. It is a very interesting "history" book in that aspect.

Average customer rating:

Interesting, but not fully satisfying
Going West in the 1840s
Just the facts
Needed more fact checking
Should have researched better.

The Oregon Trail: An American Saga
David Dary
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ASIN: 0195224000

Book Description

In today's world of jet airplanes and smooth highways, it is nearly impossible to imagine the hardships faced by the thousands of people who headed west along the great Oregon Trail. In this detailed and engaging account, historian David Dary recounts the full saga of the trail's history, from its creation in the early 1800's, to its peak during the '49 Gold Rush, its rapid decline following the completion of the transcontinental railroad, and finally, its revival as a modern day historical treasure. Dary introduces us to the pioneers: trailblazers, fur-traders, and missionaries, who made the first journeys to Oregon County, an internationally disputed territory comprising present-day Washington, Oregon, and California. We learn of the road's steadily increasing popularity, as economic problems or the promise of adventure and wealth lead thousands of homesteaders, gold-rushers, and entrepreneurs to pile their hopes and dreams into wagons and head west. Using journals and letters, as well as company and expedition reports, public records and newspaper stories, Dary takes us inside the day to day experiences of the travelers, as they risked ruin at every step from disease, weather, and human deceit. Trail. Through Dary's expert and comprehensive history, we learn how the events of the day turned a small trickle of pioneering men and women into the greatest mass migration in American history.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting, but not fully satisfying.......2006-11-09

I will not go into the factual errors in the book. Those have been described by other reviewers. Mr. Dary's book is occasionally excellent. It has two appendices on place names along the Oregon Trail and its various cutoffs; and the location and a description of the cutoffs and other roads of the Oregon Trail. These appendices will be very useful to the reader who wants a handy reference tool for locating on a modern map places of interest or import to the emigrants. These appendices alone could justify to some the purchase of this book. Also, the description of the decline of the trail and it resurgence is very good. I have five criticisms of Mr. Dary's book: (1) The cursory description on the "why" thousands sold everything, left family and home to travel to an unknown land through unknown but certain dangers. The only overarching explanation Mr. Dary gives that spurred the overlanders was a poor economy. Surely not everybody was running from bad credit or the bank! There must have been other reasons, or combingation of reasons. (2) What reasons pulled so many initially to Oregon rather than California? Was it only because California was Mexican territory? (3) I also yearned for a greater description of the Indian tribes the overlanders interacted with, the effect upon the Indians of so many strangers going through their lands, what the perception emigrants had of Indians when they started their journey, and what perceptions the Indians had of the emigrants. (4) Mr. Dary occasionally switches from discussing one emigrant party to discussing a few lines later another party travelling in a different season or location. This aburpt shifting in people, places and times left my mind with a muddle of names, places and dates that ran together without much distinction. (5) The maps are adequate, but small and most have too little detail to be of much use in orienting the text to the geography. Another book which I suggest those interested in this topic read is Frank McLynn's "Wagons West". Mr. McLynn's book goes into greater detail than Mr. Dary of the "why" thousands travelled west before the Civil War (about 30 pages of discussion); Mr. McLynn gives a greater description of how they travelled including the construction of the wagons and tack; a good discussion of the perils and diseases which the emigrants faced; the affect of the Trail upon the resident Indians; and the particular challenges, rigors and pleasures of women on the Trail (38 pages). Mr. McLynn's book covers the Oregon Trail, the several trails to California, and the Mormon emigration to Utah. So, you get a broader scope of the migration of people, how the various trails related to each other, and where the emigrants on those various trails entertwined. Also, Mr. McLynn's attention to the detail of camp life (for example, he describes the origin of circling wagons)is fascinating. Ms. McLynn spends considerably more energy than Mr. Dary describing in detail the travels and travails of particular emigrants and their parties. Mr. McLynn's narrative style describing individual groups is not only filled with details, it sometimes borders the "can't-put-it-down". The bottom line on Mr. Dary's book for me: he is a talented writer that gives the flavor of what the emigrants went through in their journey, but not much more; a description of the "Trail" and its various "cutoff"s that at times is disjointed and requires having an atlas in your lap if you wish to follow where the emigrants are in his narrative; somewhat useful maps, but most need greater detail; excellent appendices... you'll love these; and very good description of the decline and rebirth of the Oregon Trail during and after the Civil War. A book worth to purchase and read. But, if you are going to only read one book on this subject, purchase and read Mr. McLynn's "Wagons West". Happy Trails!

Going West in the 1840s.......2005-04-05

This book attracts from the beginning with a beautiful map on the inside covers showing the route of the Oregon Trail and its offshoots from Missouri to Oregon and California. Two hundred and fifty thousand people traveled over the trail by covered wagon during its heyday from the 1840s to the 1860s and more than 2,000 accounts of the passage were written by the emigrants themselves.

The author begins with a brief description of the Chinook Indians who lived at the terminus of the trail where the Columbia River joins the Pacific. He describes the early European voyages to the region and then quickly moves to the era of the fur trappers and mountain men. This can be a bit dry given the multiplicity of travelers and their trips.

The book hits its stride with Chapter 6 and the description of the emigrants traveling over the trail in the 1840s and 1850s. The author quotes extensively from the accounts of the emigrants themselves. The most touching of the stories is the two-page account of Catherine Sager of the death of her mother and father along the trail. Later in the book we encounter Catherine as a captive of the Cayuse Indians. I am inspired now to seek out Catherine Sager's book and read her full story.

In the final chapter, "Rebirth of the Trail," the author tells the fascinating story of Ezra Meeker who traveled the trail in 1852 and decided to retrace his path in 1900 at age 77. Meeker's epic covered wagon re-voyage excited interest in the old trail and created a movement to preserve portions of the route, some of it still marked with the wagon wheel ruts of the emigrants.

The book is well illustrated with photographs, maps, and art. Appendices describe related trails, historical landmarks, and there is even a glossary of 19th century words and phrases that might not be familiar to a modern reader. This is an excellent and attractive book for the general reader.

Smallchief

Just the facts.......2005-01-13

Dary reports in great detail the daily life of settlers heading west. He did a prodigious amount of research. However, the details are tedious and incorrect at times. I yearned for an insightful observation or at least a summary statement. He offered none.

Needed more fact checking.......2005-01-11

This book is aimed at the general reader and, as such, is organized in a clear manner. It covers the trail period well and, in what is unique, also covers the efforts to preserve the trail up to the current Oregon-California Trails Association. That said, the book needed to be edited again for factual errors. There are way too many. They range from trivial: Shoshone Falls is north of the Oregon Trail not south; Idaho was not included in the list of present day states made from the Old Oregon Country; to more important: Jim Bridger did not SELL Fort Bridger to the Mormons in 1853; to a real howler: blaming the 1854 Ward massacre in present day southern Idaho on the Yakama Indians, instead of the Shoshones (and by the way there were two survivors). It's too bad. This could have been a good general history for the non-specialist with a little more care. As it is it is OK as an overview, but be careful with the details.

Should have researched better........2004-12-22

In spite of positive reviews from the literary world, I found it impossible to finish reading this book. Yes, there are some interesting facts in it, but on page 53 there is a mistake that, for me, ruined the entire book. The erroneous sentence is, "Late in the fall of 1820, Charles Floyd, who had been a member of Lewis and Clark's expedition, visited his cousin, Dr. John Floyd, a Virginia congressman." To me, this is a huge error, compounded by the fact that it was incredibly easy to research the truth. Anyone who is seriously interested in the Lewis and Clark expedition knows Charles Floyd was the only member of the Corps of Discovery to die during their trip. He died of "bilious collick" in August of 1804. As a result, he couldn't have talked with Dr. John Floyd in 1820. (No, there weren't two Charles Floyds on the trip. That, too, is easily researched.) This error killed Mr. Dary's book for me. After seeing such a bonehead mistake, I found it impossible to trust anything else in the book and I finally gave up reading it after only 60 pages.

Westward Vision: The Story of the Oregon Trail (Bison Book)

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Fascinating.
A magnificent tale of stubborn true grit
Eminent

Westward Vision: The Story of the Oregon Trail (Bison Book)
David Lavender
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Great West

ASIN: 0803279159

Book Description

"In one very real sense," David Lavender writes, "the story of the Oregon Trail begins with Columbus." This opening suggests the panoramic sweep of his history of that famous trail. In chiseled, colorful prose, Lavender illustrates the "westward vision" that impelled the early explorers of the American interior looking for a northwest passage and send fur trappers into the region charted by Lewis and Clark. For the emigrants following the trappers' routes, that vision gradually grew into a sense of a manifest American destiny. Lavender describes the efforts of emigration societies, of missionaries like Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, and of early pioneer settlers like Hall Jackson Kelley, Jason Lee, and Thomas Jefferson Farnham, as well as the routes they took to the "Promised Land." He concludes by recounting the first large-scale emigrations of 1843-45, which steeled the U. S. government for war with Mexico and agreements with Britain over the Oregon boundary. David Lavender's classic histories of the Old West include Bent's Fort, California: Land of New Beginnings, and One Man's West, all available as Bison Books.

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating........2005-08-21

Noted historian David Lavender has penned probably the finest single volume on the Oregon Trail ever written. Starting in 1719, 130 years before the trail was formally established, Lavender slowly and concretely builds the story of the United States first claim to this territory by examining similar efforts by the Spanish, French, Russian and English which preceded the American claims.

Incorporating and firmly underscoring the efforts of the Native Americans, the Mountain Men, Hudson's Bay Company and the early missionary efforts, Lavender reveals that these four groups did more to claim the Northwest for the United States than any politician or political party in Washington. Always in the forefront of Western Expansion, the impact of the missionary effort was pivotal to the US claim to this Norwest portion of our nation.

This is a truly fine history and a remarkably excellent piece of writing.

A magnificent tale of stubborn true grit.......2002-09-03

David Lavender's WESTWARD VISION spans the period from the mid-17th century to 1849 as he chronicles the search for a reliable overland route to, and the subsequent settlement of, what would become known as Oregon, principally that area which borders the Willamette River as it flows into the Columbia (at present-day Portland). As the subtitle of the book indicates, this is "the story of the Oregon Trail".

For the sake of summary, I arbitrarily divide this book into five parts: early exploration of the Upper Mississippi River by French-Canadians seeking a route to the "western sea", the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the subsequent unsuccessful efforts to establish an easy route to Oregon via the Missouri River and its headwaters, the influx of "mountain men" into the area and the discovery of a more southerly route (the Oregon Trail), the early settlement in Oregon of Christian missionary groups sent to proselytize the Indians, and the massive immigration of land-seekers in the 1840's which ultimately resulted in the establishment of a U.S. Oregon Territory.

WESTWARD VISION is the result of extensive research on the part of the author. Its wealth of details is both its strong point and its undoing. Probably the most commendably concise chapters (5 and 6), considering the length of the event, deal with the amazing Lewis and Clark Expedition. Perhaps Lavender thought the history of the two-year trek adequately covered elsewhere. In any case, the following chapters on the exploits and travails of the fur-trapping mountain men and the missionaries are so full of minutiae that it would require the reader to take extensive notes in order to keep track of the various groups and individuals endeavoring to cross the Great Divide into Oregon in the 1820s and 30s. (Reading this book for pleasure, I wasn't prepared to expend that much effort.) Only in Chapter 19, which gives an account of the 1843 journey of the first large immigrant train - almost 1000 persons- over the Oregon Trail, does the narrative regain a concise clarity. A major failing of the the volume is the lack of adequate maps to locate the majority of the named and innumerable places and geographical features: rivers, river forks, buttes, mountains, rocks, forts, mountain passes, river fords, trapper rendezvous, and settlements. Perusing contemporary state highway maps didn't help much. And in a work this extensive, I would have expected a large section of illustrations. Except for several very crude drawings, there were none.

What elevates WESTWARD VISION, and compels me to award four stars, is that the author makes his point magnificently, i.e. that it took many tough people with large reserves of true grit to expand the fledgling United States to the Pacific's shores. The crossing was hard:

"At the rainswept crossing of the North Platte, blue with cold, cramped by dysentery and pregnancy pangs, Mary Walker (an 1838 pilgrim) sat down and 'cried to think how comfortable my father's hogs were' (back home). As for Sarah Smith, Mary sniffed, she wept practically the entire distance to Oregon." And even recreation had a sharp edge, as at the 1832 trappers' rendezvous:

"... a few of the boys poured a kettle of alcohol over a friend and set him afire. Somehow he lived through it, and fun's fun."

Finally, Lavender eloquently suggests the reason so many embarked on the Oregon Trail at all:

"What matters is not whether fulfillment was attainable in reality (at the Trail's end), but rather that at long last in the world's sad, torn history an appreciable part of mankind thought it might be. That was both the torment and the freedom - to go and look."

Eminent.......2002-07-23

This is an excellent account of the great quest for the Northwest, which eventually culminated in the vast migrations of Americans along the Oregon Trail. From the early exploration efforts of Jacques Cartier (1530's); Jean Nicolet (1630's); Marquette and Joliet (1670's); LaSalle (1680's); Bourgmont (early 1700's); the Verendryes (1730's to 1740's); Jonathan Carver (1760's) and others too numerous to mention, we see how the English, French, Spanish and Americans all had the goal to establish roots in Oregon. When the mountain men came into the picture searching for their beaver pelts in the early 1800's, it was this breed of men that finally opened the routes across the Rocky Mountains which lead the wagon trains through to the Northwest. Lavender then takes us up to the first overland migrations (1840's) of the missionaries and others in search of a better way of life, along with all their sacrifices and perils. This is a great book and very insightful of events leading up to the Oregon Trail.

The Donner Party Chronicles: A Day-by-Day Account of a Doomed Wagon Train, 1846-47

Average customer rating:

great book
Shines!
A Good Read, Takes you back in time
An important book that's a gripping read - an excellent gift
This is the Donner Party book I've been looking for!

The Donner Party Chronicles: A Day-by-Day Account of a Doomed Wagon Train, 1846-47
Frank Mullen
Manufacturer: Nevada Humanities Committee
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1890591017

Book Description

A commemorative volume published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Donner Party's travels across the continent.

Customer Reviews:

great book.......2006-09-17

What a great account of a tragic historical event. I felt like i was right there with them. The day -by-day account made for easy reading and let you understand the exact timeline of what the Donner party went through. Frank Mullen and the Reno-Gazette did a great job and should be very proud to keep this history alive.

Shines!.......2006-02-14

Yesterday I flew to California from Charlotte,NC. I spent my time in a jetliner, sipping a cool beverage, watching a movie on my laptop and towards the end of my journey, occasionally pertaking the beauty of snow-capped jagged mountain tops of the Sierra Nevada.

But, it was so different a mere 150 years ago. One had to travel in animal driven wagons carrying enough food and other necessities for the long and perilous journey, which could be brutally and tragically cut short by wild animals, unfriendly Indians or any natural calamity. No maps, no rest areas or highways or motels. Luck was the chief ingredient of success those days. This book tells the story of one such journey, where the travellers ran out of luck when they chose to use a shortcut and got snowbound in the Sierra Nevadas. What followed was a struggle for survival with human emotions running raw.

This book narrates this story on a day by day basis and is adorned with a lavish collection of color as well as black and white photographs of the trail and artifacts from those days. It takes one back all those years when one almost feels like a member of the doomed party. I recommend it highly for anyone with or without any interest in the events described!

On a personal note, I found one photograph especially poignant where the proven and the shortcut trails clearly branched. I could feel the indecision in the minds of the emigrants which sealed their fate.

A Good Read, Takes you back in time.......2004-08-11

If you only read one book about the Donner Party, make it this one! The Donner Chronicles tells the story of doomed pioneers and their struggle to survive. It keeps the reader at the edge of his seat and provides great detail of the period and the people. Highly recommended for history buffs who want to read history as though it's a novel instead of a dry textbook. Great photos, maps and graphics add to the text.

An important book that's a gripping read - an excellent gift.......2001-05-06

Frank Mullen has added an important book to the history of Donner Party. The tragedy has been the focus of writing since the spring of 1847, but Mullen has found a fresh way to make the story understandable and, perhaps more importantly, human.

The book is a daily chronolgy of the year that it took the party to travel from Illinois to California, and each two-page spread of this large book is carefully laid out and presents a mix of graphics and text. It is rewarding if read straight through, yet very accessible if your reading style is more "grazing" than linear.

Mullen clearly has done his homework. The sheer volume of detail and complexity in the story can be overwhelming, and Mullen includes the details that are needed to clarify and develop the people in the story. He includes wonderful quotes from diaries and supporting material, and drawings of interesting side issues such as an analysis of the probable shape of the "Pioneer Palace Car." Additionally, Marilyn Newton's photographs of the trail as seen today make it real for a modern reader.

When I have given this book as a gift to anyone with an interest in American History, it has been very well received. A truly great book.

This is the Donner Party book I've been looking for!.......2000-05-05

The full-color, glossy photographs of major landmarks and points of interest along the Emigrant Trail from Springfield, MO to Johnson's Ranch in Bear Valley are stunning. The color photos, all taken by Marilyn Newton, are grouped together in the beginning of the book, comprising 20 slick pages of almost 50 photos. It's hard to believe that wagon ruts from over 150 years ago still exist in places; happily, our continuous farming, building and paving haven't obliterated all traces of the route that so many people rode--and walked--in order to reach California.

Portraits, maps, drawings and sketches from the period are interspersed with sepia-toned contemporary photographs, some taken by Newton and some by other photographers, and appear on every page of the book. "The Donner Party Chronicles" is visually rich and stimulating. The area around Donner Lake and the route the relief parties followed are depicted in all seasons of the year. Even in black-and-white, the photos of Donner Lake and the surrounding mountains demonstrate the ruggedness of the terrain and deeply impress upon the reader the hopelessness the members of the Donner Party must have felt upon being snowed-in at the lake.

The book reads like a journal that would have been kept by one of the emigrants traveling with the Donner Party. The text is reprinted from installments journalist Frank Mullen, Jr. published in the weekly newspaper "The Reno Gazette-Journal" over the course of an entire year. The daily routine followed, problems encountered, and decisions made by the Donner Party are chronicled in a concise manner. The entries are short, most three or four paragraphs in length.

One very interesting feature of "The Donner Party Chronicles" is the map of the Emigrant Trail that appears on every left-hand page of the book, with the progress of the doomed emigrants clearly marked with a red dot. As you read along through the book, you see on every other page exactly where the emigrants were as the day's events took place. I found this map extremely helpful and fascinating. Watching the movement of the Donner Party as they traveled on foot at the pace of slow, plodding oxen made me better able to understand how great an undertaking their overland journey was. I shared this book with my husband, my Dad and my father-in-law, and they enjoyed it almost as much as I did!

Book Description

Lying in the shadows of Mt. Hood and the Cascade peaks, Columbia River Gorge is as rich in history as the bounty its fertile soils provide. From the numerous native tribes, Lewis & Clark, and famed botanist David Douglas to a guru's siege at Antelope and the modern Gorge's reputation for world-class windsurfing, its stories shape the area into a thriving chain of distinctive communities. The Gorge meshes its vibrant past with a stunning physical backdrop to provide the perfect vista for all who are curious about this alluring region. ÝÝ

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