摘要

This work draws heavily from the diaries of 17 men and women who made the four month, 2,000 mile trek to California during 1849 and 1850. Part One covers travel from the Missouri River to Fort Laramie, Part Two covers Fort Laramie to Fort Hall and Salt Lake City, and Part Three covers the trek from there to the Sierra Nevadas. Each part has chapters that detail specific parts of the trail or sites where the migrants found something important to write about. The diarists' tell of adventures, hardships, desires, concerns, deprivations, sicknesses, and deaths along the way, and of crossing the last great obstacle - the Elephant, as many of them called it - the high ridge of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.