The Oregon Trail: An American Saga by David Dary

Abstract

when women were nearly invisible in thepublic sphere or, aswith Calamity Jane, when rumors trumped trutheven during their lifetime. Their stories,"rich in fable and lean on fact,"lack sub stantial documentation (p. 197).The challenge, then,becomes one of peeking around the edges of these women's lives,reconstructingthemwith shardsof evidence placed intoa broader cultural, social, or economic context. Unfortunately, this can lead to storieswith more context than real information on the women themselves ? Em ily Morgan and theDenver madams as cases in point.Rather thana criticism,thisshould be con sidered inspiration to continue thework seen in thiscollection: placingwomen into thehistorical picture of the West, broadening thatpicturewith women's perspectives,and elevating women from thepersistentmisconception thattheyplayed an insignificantrole in theOld West. Overall, thiscollection provides awonderful introduction toNew Western History, particu larly for general readers. It combines the best of Old West storytelling with a newfangled twist:rather than reveling in tall tales, itfocuses on the real lives of thewomen behind them. Rather than perpetuating themyth of an all Anglo, mostly male domain, the essays capture the ethnic, racial, and cultural diversityof nine women who embraced opportunities theyfound on the frontier. The Oregon Trail: An American Saga By David Dary Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2004. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. 423 pages. $35.00 paper. Reviewed by Susan Badger Doyle Pendleton, Oregon David DARY is thenoted author of several books on the settlement, development, and social history of the West. Inhis latest work, The Oregon Trail, Dary tackles the essence of themythic West in a sweeping survey of the corridor of routes used during thenineteenth centuryAmerican expansion from the Missouri River to thePacific coast. The title is somewhat misleading. Although theOregon Trail was the firstroute of theAmerican pioneers who trav eled overland in coveredwagons to settle in the PacificNorthwest,Dary expands its meaning. He uses thename Oregon Trail to encompass all the routes in thegreat central corridor that went up thePlatte River and through South Pass as new opportunities arose inOregon, California, Utah, and other destinations inthe West. Hundreds of thousands ofwestering overlanders poured over many trails thatformed the corridor thatbegan as theOregon Trail. Dary beginswith a background summary of PacificNorthwest history, including the earliest indigenous peoples, exploration by Europeans and Americans, and early settlement by fur traders.This section isparticularly relevant for readers interested in the early history of the Northwest. He next shows how the route of the Oregon Trail followed routes established earlier by mountain men, traders, and missionaries. The central part of thebook is a chronological presentation of theemigrant trailsera, 1841-1869, with emphasis on thepeak emigrant trailsyears, 1843-1855,and separate chapters on thedefining years 1849 and 1850.Dary correctlypresents the trailas an evolving system. He describes thepro found changes wrought by theCalifornia gold rush,thedramatic increase in traffic in the 1850s, the impactof theCivilWar, Indian conflicts,and advances intransportationand communications in the 1860s.He notes theend of theerawith the 502 OHQ VOL. 106, no. 3 completion of the transcontinental railroad in May 1869 and concludes with a summary of the use of the trailsas settlementandmilitary routes into the 1890s. This book isa straightforward historyof the development, use, and impact of the overland trails that avoids a dramatic focus ? taken by most popular works? on the hardships, dif ficulties, and daily experiences of traveling the overland trials. It ismore about why and how the trailsdeveloped than about what it was like to travel over them. Individual experience on the trails isnot entirelyneglected; excerptsfrom diaries and reminiscences are liberallysprinkled throughout thebook. Sometimes quite lengthy, these excerpts provide personal accounts that enhance the author's historical discussion, but theyare not themain focus. In a rare departure from traditional trail histories, the last chapter,"Rebirth of theTrail," brings the storyup to thepresent.Dary discusses how Ezra Meeker's effortsatmarking and pro moting theOregon Trail were instrumental in revivinginterestin it,leading toHollywood films that romanticize it,Congressional measures that memorialize it,the formation of historical associations thatpromote and preserve it,and the proliferation of interpretive centers along the corridor of trails.This delineation of the continuous chain of reinterpretation of the Oregon Trail through successive generations demonstrates how theOregon Trail continues tobe relevant and vital today. The Oregon...