Is 'The Oregon Trail' one of the greatest adventure books of all time?

Earlier today, I finished reading “The Oregon Trail” by Francis Parkman Jr.

When I was a kid, I had an Illustrated Classic Edition of this famous book, but as best that I can remember, I never read it. Even if I had, that book, pictured at right, wasn’t the real thing, just a condensed version of the tale that was adapted by Norman Weiser.

My interest in the complete edition of this book was rekindled in May 2004 when National Geographic Adventure Magazine released its “100 Best Adventure Books” list and ranked “The Oregon Trail” at No. 31, right between “The Perfect Storm” by Sebastian Junger (No. 30) and “Through the Dark Continent” by Henry M. Stanley (No. 32).

Fast forward to about a year ago when I ran across a $3 copy of the book at Macomb Mall in Monroeville. I snatched it up, put it in the rotation and finally got around to reading it last week. I now understand why the book is considered a classic.

The complete title of the book is “The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life.” First published in book form in 1849, the book describes a two-month-long frontier hunting trip that Parkman, then 23, took in 1846 to what would eventually become the states of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming. Parkman, a Boston native who would go on to teach at Harvard, touches on a number of topics in the book, including hunting (especially buffalo), the western migration of settlers to California and Oregon, Mormonism, fur-trapping, the U.S. military, animal life and the lifestyles of early Native Americans.

I read somewhere that Parkman’s book got a major shot in the arm after its initial publication when it was favorably reviewed by Herman Melville, the author of “Moby Dick.” I wasn’t surprised to read this though, because to me “Moby Dick” and “The Oregon Trail” are somewhat similar. Those of you who have read “Moby Dick” will remember its detailed descriptions of whaling operations and whales in general. “The Oregon Trail” is very similar in its descriptions of buffalo hunting and American buffalos, which roamed the American West in massive herds in the 1840s.

“The Oregon Trail” also reminded me of another awesome American West adventure book that was also listed on National Geographic’s “100 Best Adventure Books” list, “The Journals of Lewis and Clark” by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. That book chronicles the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806 and covers a number of subjects that are also in “The Oregon Trail.” It was especially interesting to see how much the Native Americans had changed, according to “The Oregon Trail,” after more than four decades of contact with European settlers.

Before I close this thing out, just a note about the edition of the book that I bought at Macomb Mall in Monroeville. It’s an old, hardback edition of the book with a blue cloth cover that was published by Caxton House of New York. Oddly, the book doesn’t have a publication date, and I’ve had some trouble finding out exactly when it was published. As best that I can determine, it was published in the early 1950s.

I really enjoyed reading “The Oregon Trail.” It was a very cool book about the Old West that’s more than deserving of its ranking among the best adventure books of all time. If you’re interested in the “Wild West,” early American history, buffalo hunting and Native American heritage, you’ll enjoy this book.

How many of you have read this book? What did you think about it? Let us know in the comments section below.