'' The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky Mountain Life'' (also published as '' The California & Oregon Trail'') is a book written by

Francis Parkman Francis Parkman Jr. (September 16, 1823 – November 8, 1893) was an American historian, best known as author of '' The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life'' and his monumental seven-volume '' France and England in North Am ...

. It was initially serialized in twenty-one installments in '' Knickerbocker's Magazine'' (1847–49) and subsequently published as a book in 1849. The book is a first-person account of a 2-month summer tour in 1846 of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

s of

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

, and

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

. Parkman was 23 at the time. The heart of the book covers the three weeks Parkman spent hunting buffalo with a band of

Oglala Sioux The Oglala (pronounced , meaning "to scatter one's own" in Lakota language) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority of the Oglala live o ...

. Some later printings such as the 18th edition (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1969) included illustrations by

James Daugherty James Henry Daugherty (June 1, 1889 – February 21, 1974) was an American modernist painter, muralist, children's book author and illustrator. Life Daugherty was born in Asheville, North Carolina. He later lived in Indiana, Ohio, and at the ...

Reception

The book was reviewed favorably by

Herman Melville Herman Melville ( born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are ''Moby-Dick'' (1851); ''Typee'' (1846), a rom ...

. However, he complains that it demeaned American Indians and its title was misleading (the book covers only the first third of the trail).

References

External links

''The Oregon Trail''
HTML, including artwork from 3 different editions/artists.
''The Oregon Trail''
scanned books original editions color illustrated. ** Notable editions from Internet Archive: *
''The Oregon Trail of Francis Parkman''
Ginn and Company, 1910. A lengthy introduction, bibliography, and footnotes by

William Ellery Leonard William Ellery Leonard (January 25, 1876, in Plainfield, New Jersey – May 2, 1944, in Madison, Wisconsin) was an American poet, playwright, translator, and literary scholar. Early life William Ellery Channing Leonard was born on the family ho ...

with assistance by

Frederick Jackson Turner Frederick Jackson Turner (November 14, 1861 – March 14, 1932) was an American historian during the early 20th century, based at the University of Wisconsin until 1910, and then Harvard University. He was known primarily for his frontier thes ...

. *
''The Oregon Trail; Sketches of Prairie and Rocky Mountain Life''
Chicago: Scott, Foresman, 1911. Includes introduction by American historian William Macdonald * {{DEFAULTSORT:Oregon Trail 1849 books Oregon Trail History books about the American Old West Works originally published in The Knickerbocker