The California & Oregon Trail, written by Francis Parkman
Francis Parkman wrote The California and Oregon Trail (1849) by dictation to assistants after returning east from his travels there. This popular adventure narrative was based on his experience traveling the Oregon Trail, the major route westward across the Mississippi River to the Pacific coast. During his travels Parkman met a group of Oglala Sioux men with whom he lived and hunted buffalo for three weeks.
When he returned from his western sojourn, worn out by dysentery and the general hardships experienced on the journey, Parkman suffered a complete breakdown. He continued to be plagued throughout his life by various “nervous disorders” and physical disabilities. His eyesight failing, Parkman wrote this narrative, as well as his history books, France and England in North America, published in several volumes, by dictation.
Francis Parkman was a resident member of the Massachusetts Historical Society from 1852 until his death in 1893. His personal papers were given to the Society between 1885 and 1942 by Parkman and his descendants.
