A Trip Across the Plains in 1854 (1908)

[Nonfiction]

This short narrative, written in fragmentary style by one of the members of an expedition from Illinois to California in 1854, recounts with startling clarity their trip west and the tragic events that took place along the way. Encounters with Native Americans as well as the harsh reality in the lives of pioneers during the middle of the nineteenth century makes for exciting reading, bringing back to life one of the most exciting and tumultuous times in United States history—the settling of the American west.