The Oregon Trail
Francis Parkman was twenty three, just out of Harvard and already in poor health, when he rode west in the summer of 1846 to see the country before it changed. What came back is less a travel account than a young man’s record of what he found: emigrant trains grinding toward Oregon, buffalo hunts on the open plain, and three weeks living with an Oglala Sioux band. The writing is quick and physical, full of weather, horses, dust, and hunger, and it made Parkman’s name at an age when most historians are still copying notes. It is also blunt about its author’s prejudices, and his contempt for the people who sheltered him is hard going, which is part of why the book still gets argued over. Free in PDF and EPUB.
About the Author
Francis Parkman (1823-1893) was a Boston historian who worked through chronic illness and failing eyesight for most of his life. His seven part France and England in North America took him forty years. He also taught horticulture at Harvard and wrote a respected book about…
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