Sketches of Prairie and Rocky Mountain Life. In the summer of 1846, a privileged young Bostonian, Francis Parkman, embarked on a journey that took him thousands of miles beyond the protection of the US cavalry. His route led west along the pioneer trail towards the Rocky Mountains, which thousands of men, women and children would travel to seek their fortunes in the new frontier territories across the Great Plains. Parkman’s brilliant observations capture a defining period in American history. The Oregon Trail is rich in page-turning adventures hunting with a band of Oglala Sioux, evading Crow war-parties as well as colourful descriptions of the buffalo, wolves, snakes and prairie dogs that lived within these immense landscapes.
