Customer Reviews

The Oregon Trail: An American Saga

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is aimed at the general reader and, as such, is organized in a clear manner. It covers the trail period well and, in what is unique, also covers the efforts to preserve the trail up to the current Oregon-California Trails Association. That said, the book needed to be edited again for factual errors. There are way too many. They range from trivial: Shoshone Falls is north of the Oregon Trail not south; Idaho was not included in the list of present day states made from the Old Oregon Country; to more important: Jim Bridger did not SELL Fort Bridger to the Mormons in 1853; to a real howler: blaming the 1854 Ward massacre in present day southern Idaho on the Yakama Indians, instead of the Shoshones (and by the way there were two survivors). It's too bad. This could have been a good general history for the non-specialist with a little more care. As it is it is OK as an overview, but be careful with the details.

This book attracts from the beginning with a beautiful map on the inside covers showing the route of the Oregon Trail and its offshoots from Missouri to Oregon and California. Two hundred and fifty thousand people traveled over the trail by covered wagon during its heyday from the 1840s to the 1860s and more than 2,000 accounts of the passage were written by the emigrants themselves.

The author begins with a brief description of the Chinook Indians who lived at the terminus of the trail where the Columbia River joins the Pacific. He describes the early European voyages to the region and then quickly moves to the era of the fur trappers and mountain men. This can be a bit dry given the multiplicity of travelers and their trips.

The book hits its stride with Chapter 6 and the description of the emigrants traveling over the trail in the 1840s and 1850s. The author quotes extensively from the accounts of the emigrants themselves. The most touching of the stories is the two-page account of Catherine Sager of the death of her mother and father along the trail. Later in the book we encounter Catherine as a captive of the Cayuse Indians. I am inspired now to seek out Catherine Sager's book and read her full story.

In the final chapter, "Rebirth of the Trail," the author tells the fascinating story of Ezra Meeker who traveled the trail in 1852 and decided to retrace his path in 1900 at age 77. Meeker's epic covered wagon re-voyage excited interest in the old trail and created a movement to preserve portions of the route, some of it still marked with the wagon wheel ruts of the emigrants.

The book is well illustrated with photographs, maps, and art. Appendices describe related trails, historical landmarks, and there is even a glossary of 19th century words and phrases that might not be familiar to a modern reader. This is an excellent and attractive book for the general reader.

Smallchief

In spite of positive reviews from the literary world, I found it impossible to finish reading this book. Yes, there are some interesting facts in it, but on page 53 there is a mistake that, for me, ruined the entire book. The erroneous sentence is, "Late in the fall of 1820, Charles Floyd, who had been a member of Lewis and Clark's expedition, visited his cousin, Dr. John Floyd, a Virginia congressman." To me, this is a huge error, compounded by the fact that it was incredibly easy to research the truth. Anyone who is seriously interested in the Lewis and Clark expedition knows Charles Floyd was the only member of the Corps of Discovery to die during their trip. He died of "bilious collick" in August of 1804. As a result, he couldn't have talked with Dr. John Floyd in 1820. (No, there weren't two Charles Floyds on the trip. That, too, is easily researched.) This error killed Mr. Dary's book for me. After seeing such a bonehead mistake, I found it impossible to trust anything else in the book and I finally gave up reading it after only 60 pages.

Dary reports in great detail the daily life of settlers heading west. He did a prodigious amount of research. However, the details are tedious and incorrect at times. I yearned for an insightful observation or at least a summary statement. He offered none.

I will not go into the factual errors in the book. Those have been described by other reviewers. Mr. Dary's book is occasionally excellent. It has two appendices on place names along the Oregon Trail and its various cutoffs; and the location and a description of the cutoffs and other roads of the Oregon Trail. These appendices will be very useful to the reader who wants a handy reference tool for locating on a modern map places of interest or import to the emigrants. These appendices alone could justify to some the purchase of this book. Also, the description of the decline of the trail and it resurgence is very good. I have five criticisms of Mr. Dary's book: (1) The cursory description on the "why" thousands sold everything, left family and home to travel to an unknown land through unknown but certain dangers. The only overarching explanation Mr. Dary gives that spurred the overlanders was a poor economy. Surely not everybody was running from bad credit or the bank! There must have been other reasons, or combingation of reasons. (2) What reasons pulled so many initially to Oregon rather than California? Was it only because California was Mexican territory? (3) I also yearned for a greater description of the Indian tribes the overlanders interacted with, the effect upon the Indians of so many strangers going through their lands, what the perception emigrants had of Indians when they started their journey, and what perceptions the Indians had of the emigrants. (4) Mr. Dary occasionally switches from discussing one emigrant party to discussing a few lines later another party travelling in a different season or location. This aburpt shifting in people, places and times left my mind with a muddle of names, places and dates that ran together without much distinction. (5) The maps are adequate, but small and most have too little detail to be of much use in orienting the text to the geography. Another book which I suggest those interested in this topic read is Frank McLynn's "Wagons West". Mr. McLynn's book goes into greater detail than Mr. Dary of the "why" thousands travelled west before the Civil War (about 30 pages of discussion); Mr. McLynn gives a greater description of how they travelled including the construction of the wagons and tack; a good discussion of the perils and diseases which the emigrants faced; the affect of the Trail upon the resident Indians; and the particular challenges, rigors and pleasures of women on the Trail (38 pages). Mr. McLynn's book covers the Oregon Trail, the several trails to California, and the Mormon emigration to Utah. So, you get a broader scope of the migration of people, how the various trails related to each other, and where the emigrants on those various trails entertwined. Also, Mr. McLynn's attention to the detail of camp life (for example, he describes the origin of circling wagons)is fascinating. Ms. McLynn spends considerably more energy than Mr. Dary describing in detail the travels and travails of particular emigrants and their parties. Mr. McLynn's narrative style describing individual groups is not only filled with details, it sometimes borders the "can't-put-it-down". The bottom line on Mr. Dary's book for me: he is a talented writer that gives the flavor of what the emigrants went through in their journey, but not much more; a description of the "Trail" and its various "cutoff"s that at times is disjointed and requires having an atlas in your lap if you wish to follow where the emigrants are in his narrative; somewhat useful maps, but most need greater detail; excellent appendices... you'll love these; and very good description of the decline and rebirth of the Oregon Trail during and after the Civil War. A book worth to purchase and read. But, if you are going to only read one book on this subject, purchase and read Mr. McLynn's "Wagons West". Happy Trails!

Don't trust every review you see, and certainly don't let that change your opinion on the book. There are too many "armchair historians" out there including the ones reviewing this book who say this book has way too many factual errors and that it is boring. The book is very interesting actually, if you are into American history. There are a few errors sure, but nothing that keeps this book from being informative and entertaining. The illustrations and maps help with the text to get an idea of what it was like to be on the Oregon Trail.

I'm a scholarly specialist on the American west. My take on this work is that the flaws are balanced by some real strengths that make it essential to my personal library. Anyone grounded in western history will perceive the mis-steps, but will also appreciate the excellent set of maps, the selection of historical photographs, and flashes of illumination. And as another reviewer mentioned, there are also very useful appendices of historic landmarks and trail cut-offs. Dary assembled a very worthwhile overview of the first half of the overland trail era. The final chapter chronicles the afterlife/rebirth of the trail, as orchestrated by the amazing Ezra Meeker, the one-time "Hop King of the World," who at age 77 embarked on a series of schooner trips to promote recognition of the Oregon Trail.

I have to say that this is one of the most boring history books I have read to date and I've read hundreds. I'm not aware of factual errors the other reviewers mention (as I'm not that familiar with this period in American history), but the book is so generally written with so many names and dates that it's almost as boring as the high school textbooks we all hated. Not quite that bad, but certainly not up to the standards I've come to expect from a History Book Club selection.
I'm half finished with the book and though I really hate to give up on any book I start, I may not finish this one. I can't really recommend it.