Books with title The California and Oregon trail

In 1774, the Spanish viceroy of Mexico sent Juan Bautista de Anza, captain of the Presidio at Tubac (in what is now Arizona), to lead two expeditions: the first to find a safe overland route to Monterey, and the second to return Anza to California with 240 men, women, and children to establish a settlement in San Francisco. The Anza Trail and the Settling of California synthesizes firsthand documents and diaries from the Anza expeditions to retell the story of the exploration of the Southwest and the settlement of the San Francisco Bay Area. But it also tells, on a more personal level, the story of four very different characters—Anza, the criollo commander; his partner, Francisco Garcia, a Spanish priest and explorer; Sebastian Tarabal, a Native American and accidental guide; and Salvador Palma, chief of the Yuma nation-men who overcame and in many cases benefited from their differences to ensure the success of the expeditions. Heyday gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Park Service in the publication of this book.

In the 1840s, the land that extended west from Missouri and Iowa was unknown. But enticing descriptions of Oregon and California on the far western coast trickled back to the East. In this issue, we read about the men, women, and children who traveled overland in wagon trains and literally blazed a trail to California. You can meet the mountain men and the first few daring people who traveled over the unfamiliar land to reach California in the 1830s and early 1840s. There are articles about two specific emigrant groups - the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy party and the Donner-Reed party - that had extraordinarily different experiences attempting to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains. And we've included articles that uses the "voices" of women and children to add their perspectives on the journey on the California Trail.