PRAIRIE SCHOONER DETOURS

The warm revelation of history presented in Wake of the Prairie Schooner (1943) is here again as the author, her husband, and two scientifically minded friends, retrace the course of the '49ers over the Hastings and Lassen's Cut-Offs. From old letters, diaries, accounts of many a trip, they search out the old trails, find the marked and unmarked sites of interest, relive, to some degree, the hazards the gold-bound parties knew, have besides many rigorous experiences of their own. The Hastings Cut-Off was traveled by the Donner-Reed party, and all the evidence is again recalled, revalued and sadly remembered of that tragic episode. You get a sense of the travel worn migrants, the obstacles of mountain trails, mud, desert, Indians, the hopes and despairs they must have known for the author makes good use of original material in contrast to the events of their own personal search. Companionable and pleasant history-travel volume.