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by: George R. Stewart
Amazon.com's Price: $23.95 Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 978.02
EAN: 9780803291430
ISBN: 0803291434
Label: Bison Books
Manufacturer: Bison Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 339
Publication Date: August 01, 1983
Publisher: Bison Books
Sales Rank: 1071627
Studio: Bison Books
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
In 1841 and 1842 small groups of emigrants tried to discover a route to California passable by wagons. Without reliable maps or guides, they pushed ahead, retreated, detoured, split up, and regrouped, reaching their destination only at great cost of property and life. But they had found a trail, or cleared one, and by their mistakes had shown others how to take wagon trains across half a continent.
By 1844 a great migration was in progress. Each successive party learned from those who went before where to cross rivers and mountains, when to rest, when to forge ahead, and how to find food and water. Increased experience was translated into better wagon designs, improved understanding of climate and terrain, and better-supplied and -organized caravans.
George R. Stewart's California Trail describes the trail's year-by-year changes as weather conditions, new exploration, and the changing character of emigrants affected it. Successes and disasters (like the Donner party's fate) are presented in nearly personal detail. More than a history of the trail, this book tells how to travel it, what it felt like, what was feared and hoped for.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - A Must Read For Every American
The old West is a subject that has been poorly served by Hollywood and the current crop of academic writers eager to show that the US is a rogue nation fit only for extinction. Reading Stewart's book will change all that.
In 1957 I talked with a 96 year-old gentleman in Golden, CO, who was then living in a rooming house next to one of my college buddies. He claimed to have been the sheriff of Central City (CO) in the 1880s, which I later found to have been true. He talked ... Read More
Rating: - A Wonderful Overview
If you have time to read only one book on Immigration in the Trans-Mississippi West this classic by Stewart is the one. Filled with characters and anecdotes it started me on a long and large collection of books on the Old West. Many published in small numbers have been excellent investments.
Rating: - The Opening of the Roads to California
Stewart tells us a splendid story. In 1840, California was there to be settled, but how to cross the deserts and mountains to reach it? Beginning with the Bartelson Party in 1841, pioneers blazed ever-better trails that avoided deserts, followed water, and crossed the mountains, especially the forbidding peaks of the Sierras. But even though trails improved, they were still treacherous, as shown by the doomed Donner Party in 1846. We get a fascinating picture of the West, and Stewart even takes on ... Read More
Rating: - California's Wagon Train Migration
Because my family also migrated to California (albiet in 1993) I have been interested in the history of the settling of the American west. This book was wonderfully informative but also very compelling reading. It chronicles the annual human migrations from the Missouri to California, including the ill-fated Donner party (in 1845)and the famous "49ers". The author did a very good job comparing the immigrants mode of travel, unique difficulties faced during each of these migration years, route finding ... Read More
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