The Oregon Trail: An American SagaKnopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2007. dec. 18. - 432 oldal 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. Starting with an overview of Oregon Country in the early 1800s, a vast area then the object of international rivalry among Spain, Britain, Russia, and the United States, David Dary gives us the whole sweeping story of those who came to explore, to exploit, and, finally, to settle there. Using diaries, journals, company and expedition reports, and newspaper accounts, David Dary takes us inside the experience of the continuing waves of people who traveled the Oregon Trail or took its cutoffs to Utah, Nevada, Montana, Idaho, and California. He introduces us to the fur traders who set up the first “forts” as centers to ply their trade; the missionaries bent on converting the Indians to Christianity; the mountain men and voyageurs who settled down at last in the fertile Willamette Valley; the farmers and their families propelled west by economic bad times in the East; and, of course, the gold-seekers, Pony Express riders, journalists, artists, and entrepreneurs who all added their unique presence to the land they traversed. We meet well-known figures–John Jacob Astor, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, John Frémont, 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. Above all, The Oregon Trail offers a panoramic look at the romance, colorful stories, hardships, and joys of the pioneers who made up this tremendous and historic migration. |
Tartalomjegyzék
4 | |
16 | |
20 | |
CHAPTER THREE Discovering the Oregon Trail | 34 |
Early Overland Routes to Oregon | 38 |
United States and Territories 1830 | 69 |
CHAPTER SEVEN SelfRule and More Emigrants | 109 |
CHAPTER EIGHT Fiftyfour Forty or Fight | 128 |
Independence to Fort Laramie | 224 |
CHAPTER FOURTEEN The Changing Road | 243 |
Fort Laramie to Fort Vancouver | 247 |
United States and Territories 1860 | 281 |
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Rebirth of the Trail | 310 |
Acknowledgments | 333 |
Cutoffs and Other Roads | 349 |
Glossary | 355 |
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American arrived Astor Astoria became began Bridger buffalo California camp Captain cattle cholera Clark Columbia River Creek crossed the Missouri Cutoff days later diary established expedition ferry followed Fort Bridger Fort Hall Fort Kearny Fort Laramie Fort Vancouver Frémont Fur Company fur trade gold gold-seekers Hall head Historical Society horses Hudson's Bay Company Ibid Idaho Independence Indians John Joseph journal journey June Kansas State Historical Kearny killed Laramie located Louis McLoughlin Meek Meeker mission Missouri River Mormons mules named Nebraska North Platte North Platte River North West Company northwest Oregon Country Oregon Trail overland oxen Pacific party Plains Platte River prairie reached road Rock Rocky Mountains route sailed Salt Lake City Scotts Bluff settlers ship Sioux Snake River soldiers soon South Pass spring steamboat Stuart Territory town trading post Vancouver wagon train Walla Washington western Whitman Willamette Valley William wrote Wyoming York Young