American Trails Book Series

(The Oregon Trail by Albert Bierstadt)

Right now we are all cooped up because of the virus of 2020.  We can't travel, but we can read about it. Here are some suggestions. Some of these books, like the ones in The Rivers of America Book Series, are written by well known authors (e.g Wallace Stegner, George R. Stewart and Stewart H. Holbrook.)

   In a review of The Wilderness Road it is noted  that “The story of an old road along which thousands of Americans passed is one of the most appealing and dramatic themes in the newer social history.” If you have wondered how the explorers and settlers found their way across this vast continent, the books in this series will be of interest. Some of the trails wander into Canada.
   The first three volumes were published by Bobbs-Merrill in the late 1940s. Fifteen more volumes were published later, during the 1960s and 1970s by McGraw-Hill. They are listed here along with some descriptions and reviews. The bolded titles indicate that the book is available in the Western Libraries.

Kincaid, Robert L. The Wilderness Road. Bobbs-Merrill Co. 1947.
"A thorough history of the famous pathway to the West, that gives all-inclusive coverage of its events, personalities and importance. Virginia to Tennessee to Kentucky, here are the Indians, hunters, homeseekers, soldiers, mountaineers, moonshiners, Southern highlanders -- all national types, the frontier leaders and trail blazers, the increasing wave of immigrants. How the route held the new territory of the Northwest free for American occupation, the ebb and flow of the Civil War battles, the failure of a British bonanza, the legends, tales and mysteries of the past."
For a review: Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, 10/1947 and
Catholic Historical Review, 04/1948.

Monaghan, Jay. The Overland Trail. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co. 1947.
For a review: Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, 07/1948.
One of 'The American Trails Series'. "Hundreds of white traders operated throughout the area for 300 years. They rubbed elbows with Jesuit priests, Indians, Scottish settlers, and English adversaries. Guided by Indians, they worked out canoe routes which eventually stretched nearly 4000 miles. They suffered portages and freeze-ups which today stagger the imagination. They lived on pemmican and wild rice, berries and fish, and risked losing their lives on every trip they made. Here are the stories of the epic fights between the Nor'west and the Hudson's Bay Company's men; the struggles between those living in a new land and their governors thousands of miles away; the feats of such great explorers as Radisson, Fraser, Simpson, and Mackenzie."

Jordan, Philip D. The National Road. Gloucester, Mass.: P. Smith, 1966. Bobbs-Merrill c.1948
The National Road (also known as the Cumberland Road) was the first major improved highway in the United States built by the federal government. Built between 1811 and 1837, the 620-mile (1,000 km) road connected the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and was a main transport path to the West for thousands of settlers.
Review in: The Journal of Economic History, 05/1949, Volume 9, Issue 1
Review in: Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 44, No. 3 (September 1948), pp. 311-312.
“Here is history that is delightful and fascinating.”

Daniels, Jonathan. The Devil's Backbone; The Story of the Natchez Trace. with Map and Headpieces by the Dillons. New York: Mc-Graw-Hill. 1962.
Review in: The North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. 39, No. 4 (October, 1962), pp. 566-567.
"The Natchez Trace Trail is a designated National Scenic Trail in the United States, whose route generally follows sections of the 444-mile (715 km) Natchez Trace Parkway through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi."

The Old Post Road: The Story of the Boston Post Road by Stewart H. Holbrook, New York: McGraw-Hill. 1962.
There is now a new book about this road between Boston and New York: The King’s Best Highway, by Eric Jaffe. For a review see: “The Boston Post Road: A Path Through History,” Jim Motavalli, New York Times, Sept. 7, 2010.

Riesenberg, Felix. The Golden Road; the Story of California's Spanish Mission Trail. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1962
"The "story of the great road known as El Camino Real, the King's Highway, and as the California Mission Trail, and of the people who traveled it in its hundreds of years-Indians, priests, cutthroats, gold hunters, gamblers, and gay caballeros."

Stewart, George R. The California Trail, an Epic with Many Heroes. New York: McGraw-Hill.1962.
"In 1841 and 1842 small groups of emigrants tried to discover a route to California passable by wagons. Without reliable maps or guides, they pushed ahead, retreated, detoured, split up, and regrouped, reaching their destination only at great cost of property and life. But they had found a trail, or cleared one, and by their mistakes had shown others how to take wagon trains across half a continent… George R. Stewart's California Trail describes the trail's year-by-year changes as weather conditions, new exploration, and the changing character of emigrants affected it. Successes and disasters (like the Donner party's fate) are presented in nearly personal detail. More than a history of the trail, this book tells how to travel it, what it felt like, what was feared and hoped for."

Young, Otis E. The First Military Escort on the Santa Fe Trail, 1829: From the Journal and Reports of Major Bennet Riley and Lieutenant Philip St. George Cooke. 1952.

Lavender, David Sievert. Westward Vision; The Story of the Oregon Trail. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1963.

Carter, Hodding. Doomed Road of Empire; the Spanish Trail of Conquest. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1963.
Review in: The Americas, 07/1965, Volume 22, Issue 1
“This book belongs to the series “American Trails” and, like the preceding volumes, is beautiful in its format and presentation.”
“In this book Hodding Carter relates the history of the Camino Real, a road that ran northeastward from Saltillo, Mexico to Natchitoches on the Red River.” From:  Donald E. Chipman,
The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 45, No. 2 (May, 1965), pp. 309-310.

Stegner, Wallace. The Gathering of Zion : The Story of the Mormon Trail. McGraw-Hill, 1964 & 1966.
Review in: The Historian, 05/1965 and The American Historical Review, 04/1965
"In telling the story of the Mormon Trail, Wallace Stegner documents the great Mormon trek from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City in 1846-1847, and the steady migration that followed it out the Platte Valley and across the mountains for the next quarter century."

Cushman, Dan. The Great North Trail:America’s Route of the Ages,
Review in: The American Historical Review, 10/1966
“Americans are used to thinking of our country's development as following the course of empire, i.e. East to West. But, in a larger sense, our most important avenue of development has been North-South, following the Great North Trail from Siberia, across the Bering Strait, down through Alaska, Canada, skirting the Rockies down into Mexico and even through South America….
The study surveys buffalo trails, Indian tribes, Spanish adventures, fur traders, gold trails, cattle wars and the Klondike strike. Cushman has hardly any axes to grind and tells his story in a semi-scholarly and entertaining way." Kirkus Review

Egan Ferol. The El Dorado Trail: The Story of the Gold Rush Routes Across Mexico
"A retracking and crisscrossing of the first major routes across Mexico into California followed by gold hunters and settlers just after the discovery at Sutter's sawmill. The author has utilized an impressive list of primary sources -- to etch out the hazards and oases in the three main approaches to the gold strike. Approximately 30,000 seekers of the dream passed through the northern, central and Southern routes described here in the years 1848-9." Kirkus Review

Johnson, Dorothy M. The Bloody Bozeman : The Perilous Trail to Montana's Gold. McGraw-Hill, 1971.
Review in:The American Historical Review, 10/1973
"The Bozeman Trail led to the goldfields of Montana for six years in the 1860s before the army abandoned its three forts along the way, yielding to Red Cloud and his warriors. Hailed by A. B. Guthrie Jr. as "among the very best in the American Trail series,"The Bloody Bozeman weaves an "almost seamless" pattern of destiny and adventure."

Rouse, Parke. The Great Wagon Road:From Philadelphia to the South. Vol. 11. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1973.
Review in the Journal of Historical Geography, Vol.2, No.2, April,1976.
See also the Wikipedia entry for the “Great Wagon Road”

Dillon, Richard H. Siskiyou Trail:The Hudson's Bay Company Route to California. Vol. 12. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1975.
"Siskiyou Trail -- twelfth of The American Trail Series -- uses diaries, correspondence, and other records from the 1820's to the 1840's to reconstruct the opening of a route between British-occupied Fort Vancouver (now Vancouver, Wash.) and Mexican-ruled California….Filled with odd characters including botanist David Douglas (discoverer of the Douglas fir), assorted Iroquois (who assisted the Hudson's Bay Company in Western exploration), Canadian trappers, and American explorers (notably dumber than the British in their encounters with the Indians), this neglected scrap of Western lore has the makings of a rattling good narrative…”

Remley, David. A. Crooked Road: The Story of the Alaska Highway. 1976
A 2008 edition is available from the University of Alaska Press:
“Crooked Road tells the tale of how the Alaska Highway was built during World War II. David Remley chronicles how Americans and Canadians mapped and built the highway under the 1942 authorization of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who ordered its construction for the joint defense of the United States and Canada. Crooked Road draws upon archival images and oral histories from those who lived in the prior unpaved wilderness and those who regularly drive on the highway today, and ultimately offers a fascinating historical account of the expansion of the American landscape.”
Review by: Peggy M. Dillon, The Oral History Review, Vol. 37, No. 2 (SUMMER/FALL 2010), pp. 268-270

Soule, Gardner. The Long Trail: How Cowboys & Longhorns Opened the West.
"This is the story of how cowboys and longhorns opened the west over the trails criss-crossing east/west and north/south routes wherever the going was easiest for the longhorn cattle and the cowboys who drove them. The trail wound from the Gulf coast area of Brownsville, Texas to Calgary, Alberta." Orlan Sawey, Western American Literature, Volume 12, Number 1, Spring 1977
pp. 78-79.


Lavender, David. Winner Take All: The Trans-Canada Canoe Trail. 1st ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1977.
Another Trail Series:

   For years the Arthur H. Clark Company published a series devoted to trails. It is now an imprint of the University of Oklahoma Press and the journeys continue:
"The story of travel and exploration across the American West is treated in this ongoing series of monographs. From the well-known to the obscure, the routes of explorers, pioneers, and travelers are examined in detail." https://www.oupress.com/series/the-american-trails-series

Here are some of the older titles from the original series:
Etter, Patricia, To California on the Southern Route 1849: A History and Annotated Bibliography,
"Identifies and evaluates virtually every known source on the southern trails of the gold rush of 1849, citing some 130 diaries, journals, and reminiscences. Following a historical overview, narrative introductions precede lists and descriptions of sources for varying routes west, including routes through Mexico and important feeder trails. Each entry gives notes on sources' locations. Includes b&w original and historical photos and illustrations, a glossary of places, an appendix on routes, and a fold-out map.”
Hague, Harlan. The Road to California: The Search for a Southern Overland Route, 
Heckman, Marlin L. Overland on the California Trail. 1984.
Hutchings, James Mason. Seeking the Elephant: James Mason Hutchings' journal of his overland trek to California, including his voyage to America, 1848, and letters from the mother lode 1849. 1980.
Koenig, George. Beyond this Place There be Dragons:The Routes of the Tragic Trek of the Death Valley 1849'Ers Through Nevada, 1984.
Lowe, James. The Bridger Trail. 1999.
McKinstry, Bruce L. The California Overland Diary of Byron N. McKinstry, 1850-1852. . 1975.
Outland, Charles. Stagecoaching on El Camino Real.. 1973.
Rumer, Thomas. The Wagon Trains of '44: A Comparative View of the Individual Caravans in the Emigration of 1844 to Oregon, 1990.
Rumer, Thomas. This Emigrating Company:The 1844 Oregon Trail Journal of Jacob Hammer  1990.
Settle, Raymond W. and Mary Lund Settle. Overland Days to Montana in 1865: The Diary of Sara Raymond and Journal of Dr. Waid Howard. 1971.
Shumate, Alber. The Notorious I.C. Woods of the Adams Express. 1986.
Spring, Agnes Wright. The Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage and Express Routes. 1949.

Young, Otis E. The First Military Escort on the Santa Fe Trail, 1829: From the Journal and Reports of Major Bennet Riley and Lieutenant Philip St. George Cooke. 1952.

Most of these titles can be found on AbeBooks.

For a related series about the Historic Highways of America, see my post about Archer Butler Hulbert.