Summary Of The Oregon Trail By Francis Parkman

The Oregon Trail was written by Francis Parkman, Jr. Parkman was born on September 16, 1823 in Boston Massachusetts and died November 8, 1993, at age 70. He was a well known historian and writer, he attended Harvard College where he graduated in 1844. He is best known for this book The Oregon Trail and many of his accounts are still used as historical sources today. The book was originally published in 1849 and gave a vision of what Francis Parkman witnessed while traveling on the trail. The book is based on a journey that lasted a few months during the summer of 1846, which discusses mainly Parkman’s experience hunting buffalo with the local native americans that lived on the trail. Francis Parkman’s writing of the book and his experiences

They began in the east and made their way to St. Louis by railroad where they then used the Missouri River to travel to Kansas, They went to Westport where they met three men that agreed to travel with them. The three men were planning on hunting in the prairies. Parkman and Shaw were happy to have the men join them on their journey.

Their journey wasn’t very interesting in the beginning. The British men decided to start using a trail other than the one they had originally planned to use. They soon learned that by using the other trail, they missed the Rockies as well. After going too far they figured it would be best if they used the Oregon Trail to try and reach Fort Laramie. After traveling eight days they finally came across someone on the Oregon Trail. He was a straggler immigrant and at the end of three weeks, the Englishmen and a small group of immigrants that they had met along the way joined them. They soon reached the Platte River.

Once they arrived at the Platte River they were in buffalo country. Parkman and Shaw liked this and were intrigued by the buffalo. They killed many buffalo before ending their journey. While they were in buffalo country they knew they were likely to encounter some hostile

Parkman enjoyed this life, although he knew the dangers. The Indians invaded hunting grounds, of the enemies to hunt for buffalo skins. The skin was useful to them to repair their teepees. Parkman stayed with the Indians, for a while at Fort Laramie, but decided to continue alone so he could reach his destination on time. On his way back to St. Louis he was joined by traders. The men finally made it Westport, where they sold their possessions. They then traveled downstream toward St. Louis. In the weeks after Parkman and Shaw made it back Comanches and Pawnees raided the trail they had used. After the raids, nobody used the trail for the next six