Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A truly outstanding and comprehensive frontier history., April 4, 2000
In 1864 Jim Bridger blazed a trail route through Wyoming and southern Montana that provided a shorter, faster access to the new Territory of Montana and the gold fields of Bannack and Virginia City. Jim Bridger's trail also provided safer passage for emigrant trains traveling to Montana during the turbulent decade of Plains Indian unrest, and eliminated hundreds of miles and many days of travel along the least dangerous, but circuitous route via the Oregon Trail or the longer routes by way of Fort Bridger or Salt Lake City. Historian James Lowe has assembled all available material on Jim Bridger's involvement with the trail that bears his name and dispels many of the inaccuracies and romantic assumptions that have built up over the last 130 years. A thorough background is provided on Bridger, gold discovers, federal Indian policy, variant trail routes, and other factors which precipitated the blazing of The Bridger Trail. This superbly documented, highly recommended contribution to Western Historical Studies is enhanced with numerous contemporary and historical maps, historical photographs, and portraits of several of the earliest travelers on the route, as well as tables providing a listing of the 1864 trains, the provisions and equipment used and recommended for travel, and a listing of the pioneers who used the trail in 1864.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The complete story - A must for scholars of Western History, October 21, 1999
By A Customer
James Lowe has captured the essence of Western History in this recent release. An accomplished author and historian, Lowe tells it like it was. He states in the preface that this text is intended for the layman or scholar alike, and though the former will find the story entertaining, the latter will reap the full benefit of his extensive research. Lowe has successfully provided the reader with an accurate overview of frontiersman, Jim Bridger, Native-American history and politics, the history of nineteenth century westward migration and United States Indian policy of the same era. In detail, he has presented a thorough and accurate account of the discovery and usage of the route known as the Bridger Trail to the gold fields of Montana, as well as compared the alternative routes of the Bozeman and Montana Trails. The reader is given countless examples from emigrant diaries of the difficulties presented these travelers in making the decision of which route to take. These diaries are extensively quoted to document the various trains, and experiences of the over 2,500 travelers who embarked on the Bridger Trail in 1864. Through Lowe's understanding of Native-American politics of that time, he also helps explain many of the fears and misconceptions of these heroic pioneers. His study includes the exacting of the location of the trail and points out both the accuracies and fallacies of many of the historic maps which are reproduced in the book. There are also several historic photographs of those who challenged the hardships of this route to become prominent citizens of Montana. This book makes both interesting and entertaining reading for anyone interested in the history of the American frontier, an excellent addition to the library of any scholar of Western History, and a must for everyone with a particular interest in Oregon Trail, Wyoming, or Montana History.
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