The Emigrant's Guide to Oregon and California

The Emigrant's Guide to Oregon and California
Author: Lansford Warren Hastings
Publisher: Applewood Books
Total Pages: 157
Release: 1994
Genre: History
ISBN: 1557092451

Published in 1845, this guidebook for pioneers is a reproduction of one of the most collectible books about California and the Western movement. It was the guidebook used by the Donner Party on their fateful journey. In addition, because Hastings' shortcut route through the Rockies produced such tragedy, the War Department commissioned The Prairie Traveler.

The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California

The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California
Author: Lansford Hastings
Publisher: Ravenio Books
Total Pages: 284
Release:
Genre: History
ISBN:

Lansford Warren Hastings’ The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California serves as a captivating window into mid-19th-century America. Published in 1845, this handbook beckons pioneers with vivid descriptions of the lush landscapes of California and Oregon. Hastings paints scenes of untamed beauty, enticing those seeking a fresh start in the rugged frontier. However, beneath the picturesque prose lies a hidden agenda: Hastings aspired to establish an independent Republic of California, positioning himself as its ruler. Despite his failed ambitions, this work remains essential reading for anyone intrigued by the forces that shaped the settling of the American West.

Stay Alive: The Journal of Douglas Allen Deeds, The Donner Party Expedition, 1846

Stay Alive: The Journal of Douglas Allen Deeds, The Donner Party Expedition, 1846
Author: Rodman Philbrick
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Total Pages: 138
Release: 2021-12-07
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1338692305

"Soon we will eat the frozen cattle.... And then, when that is gone, what shall we eat?Shall we eat the snow? Shall we eat the ice? Shall we eat the bark on the frozen trees?What shall we eat?"Spring, 1846: Douglas Allen Deeds dreams of starting a new life out West. When the opportunity to join the Donner Party Expedition arises, he leaves the life he's known behind to set out on the nearly 2,000-mile trek from Independence, Missouri to sunny California.But progress is slow. Brutal heat, poisoned water, and rough terrain slows the expedition down. Soon they have a choice: continue on the known but grueling trail, or take a shortcut that would cut 350 miles from their journey-but take them through unknown territory. Is it worth the risk?Winter comes quickly in the mountains, and the wrong choice could leave them stranded in the Sierra Mountains when the snow comes, with no shelter, supplies, or even food.Newbery Honor-winning author Rodman Philbrick brings to life the excitement, danger, and horrors of the Donner Party's journey west.

The Plains Across

The Plains Across
Author: John D. Unruh
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 590
Release: 1993
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780252063602

The most honored book ever released by the University of Illinois Press, The Plains Across was the result of more than a decade's work by its author. Here, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Oregon Trail, is a paperback reissue that includes the notes, bibliography, and illustrations contained in the 1979 cloth edition.

The Prairie Traveler

The Prairie Traveler
Author: Randolph Barnes Marcy
Publisher:
Total Pages: 352
Release: 1859
Genre: Overland journeys to the Pacific
ISBN:

Emigrants on the Overland Trail

Emigrants on the Overland Trail
Author: Michael E. LaSalle
Publisher: Truman State Univ Press
Total Pages: 516
Release: 2011
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781935503958

Presenting the “lost” year of the overland emigrants in 1848, this volume sheds light on the journey of the men, women, children, and the wagon trains that made the challenging trek from Missouri to Oregon and California. These primary sources, written by seven men and women diarists from different wagon companies, tell how settlers endured the tribulations of a five-month westward journey covering 2,000 miles. These intrepid souls include a young mother, a French priest, a college-educated teacher, and an ox driver. Subjected to the extremes of fear, failure, suffering, and hope, they persevered and finally triumphed.

The Meek Cutoff

The Meek Cutoff
Author: Brooks Geer Ragen
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2017-05-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0295806869

In 1845, an estimated 2,500 emigrants left Independence and St. Joseph, Missouri, for the Willamette Valley in what was soon to become the Oregon Territory. It was general knowledge that the route of the Oregon Trail through the Blue Mountains and down the Columbia River to The Dalles was grueling and dangerous. About 1,200 men, women, and children in over two hundred wagons accepted fur trapper and guide Stephen Meek's offer to lead them on a shortcut across the trackless high desert of eastern Oregon. Those who followed Meek experienced a terrible ordeal when his memory of the terrain apparently failed. Lost for weeks with little or no water and a shortage of food, the Overlanders encountered deep dust, alkali lakes, and steep, rocky terrain. Many became ill and some died in the forty days it took to travel from the Snake River in present-day Idaho to the Deschutes River near Bend, Oregon. Stories persist that children in the group found gold nuggets in a small, dry creek bed along the way. From 2006 to 2011, Brooks Ragan and a team of specialists in history, geology, global positioning, metal detecting, and aerial photography spent weeks every spring and summer tracing the Meek Cutoff. They located wagon ruts, gravesites, and other physical evidence from the most difficult part of the trail, from Vale, Oregon, to the upper reaches of the Crooked River and to a location near Redmond where a section of the train reached the Deschutes. The Meek Cutoff moves readers back and forth in time, using surviving journals from members of the 1845 party, detailed day-to-day maps, aerial photographs, and descriptions of the modern-day exploration to document an extraordinary story of the Oregon Trail.