Albert Jerome Dickson was fourteen years old in 1864 when he left LaCrosse, Wisconsin, in a small caravan of covered wagons headed for Montana Territory. Thousands of emigrants had preceded him on the Oregon Trail, but none ever described the journey in sharper detail. Covered Wagon Days recreates the daily progress of Dickson's party, which included his guardians, Joshua and Rebecca Ridgley. The logistics of such a trip, the sights along a trail marked by ruts and fresh graves, the rigors of camping, the encounters with Indians and returning pilgrims and vigilantes running after road agents--all figure in Dickson's memoir. The payoff for the Ridgleys is not the gold being discovered in the mountains near Virginia City but a fine farm in Gallatin Valley. As vivid as any novel about the Oregon Trail and pioneering in the Northwest, Covered Wagon Days , first published in 1929, is based on journals and materials that were edited by the author's son, Arthur Jerome Dickson.
Albert Jerome Dickson was a fourteen-year old youth when taking these notes of his 1864 journey westward to Montana. In later years his son Arthur compiled all his father's notes, journals and papers into this narrative. Young Albert was enthusiastic, sharp-eyed and keen in his observations. Not only do we read of day to day travel on the trail, but also Indian uprisings and intimidations of the early 1860's; road agents, thieves and murderers and how vigilante groups confronted this behavior; life in early Montana mining communities; the reality of making ends meet while homesteading; establishment of territorial laws; character analysis of such men as Jim Bridger, J. M. Bozeman, military figures, the notorious Jack Slade and many others. An enjoyable and historical timepiece.
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