| Edition |
1st ed. |
| Description |
xiv, 414 p. : ill., maps ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (p. 361-391) and index. |
| Contents |
The exploration of Oregon -- Astoria -- Discovering the Oregon Trail -- John McLoughlin and the missionaries -- The American occupation of Oregon -- The emigrants of 1843 -- Self-rule and more emigrants -- Fifty-four Forty or fight -- The year of decision -- New Zion, more emigrants, and a massacre -- A lull before the rush -- The Gold Rush of 1849 -- The hectic year of 1850 -- The changing road -- More change and civil war -- Decline of the Trail -- Rebirth of the Trail -- Appendix A: Historic landmarks -- Appendix B: Cutoffs and other roads. |
| Summary |
A major one-volume history of the Oregon Trail from its earliest beginnings to the present, by a prize-winning historian of the American West. We meet well-known figures-John Jacob Astor, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, John Fremont, the Donners, and Red Cloud, among others-as well as dozens of little-known men, women, and children who jotted down what they were seeing and feeling in journals, letters, or perhaps even on a rock or a gravestone. Throughout, Dary keeps us informed of developments in the East and their influence on events in the West, among them the building of the transcontinental railroad and the efforts of the far western settlements to become U.S. territories and eventually states. |
| Subject |
Oregon National Historic Trail -- History.
|
|
Frontier and pioneer life -- Oregon National Historic Trail.
|
|
West (U.S.) -- History -- 1848-1860.
|
| ISBN |
0375413995 |
| Standard No. |
9780375413995 |
|
