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U.S. Landmark Books #42
The Pioneers Go West
Seventeen-year-old Moses Schallenberger wanted to go to California. In 1844, he joined a wagon train to do just that. There was only one Nobody had ever made it to California by wagon before. For a year, he and
50 others struggled through high mountain passes and across wide rushing rivers, enduring dangerous encounters with Indians and buffalo, inclement weather, difficult terrain, near-starvation and disaster.Ultimately, Moses and his friends succeeded–becoming the first pioneers to cross the Sierra Nevadas by wagon. Today, the trail they blazed is a major route into California.
50 others struggled through high mountain passes and across wide rushing rivers, enduring dangerous encounters with Indians and buffalo, inclement weather, difficult terrain, near-starvation and disaster.Ultimately, Moses and his friends succeeded–becoming the first pioneers to cross the Sierra Nevadas by wagon. Today, the trail they blazed is a major route into California.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1954
5 people are currently reading
169 people want to read
About the author
George R. Stewart
75 books210 followersGeorge Rippey Stewart was an American toponymist, a novelist, and a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. He is best known for his only science fiction novel Earth Abides (1949), a post-apocalyptic novel, for which he won the first International Fantasy Award in 1951. It was dramatized on radio's Escape and inspired Stephen King's
The Stand
.
His 1941 novel Storm , featuring as its protagonist a Pacific storm called Maria, prompted the National Weather Service to use personal names to designate storms and inspired Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe to write the song "They Call the Wind Maria" for their 1951 musical "Paint Your Wagon." Storm was dramatized as "A Storm Called Maria" on a 1959 episode of ABC's Disneyland. Two other novels, Ordeal by Hunger (1936) and Fire (1948) also evoked environmental catastrophes.
Stewart was a founding member of the American Name Society in 1956-57, and he once served as an expert witness in a murder trial as a specialist in family names. His best-known academic work is Names on the Land A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States (1945; reprinted, New York Review Books, 2008). He wrote three other books on place-names, A Concise Dictionary of American Place-Names (1970), Names on the Globe (1975), and American Given Names (1979). His scholarly works on the poetic meter of ballads (published under the name George R. Stewart, Jr.), beginning with his 1922 Ph.D. dissertation at Columbia, remain important in their field.
His 1959 book Pickett's Charge is a detailed history of the final attack at Gettysburg.
His 1941 novel Storm , featuring as its protagonist a Pacific storm called Maria, prompted the National Weather Service to use personal names to designate storms and inspired Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe to write the song "They Call the Wind Maria" for their 1951 musical "Paint Your Wagon." Storm was dramatized as "A Storm Called Maria" on a 1959 episode of ABC's Disneyland. Two other novels, Ordeal by Hunger (1936) and Fire (1948) also evoked environmental catastrophes.
Stewart was a founding member of the American Name Society in 1956-57, and he once served as an expert witness in a murder trial as a specialist in family names. His best-known academic work is Names on the Land A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States (1945; reprinted, New York Review Books, 2008). He wrote three other books on place-names, A Concise Dictionary of American Place-Names (1970), Names on the Globe (1975), and American Given Names (1979). His scholarly works on the poetic meter of ballads (published under the name George R. Stewart, Jr.), beginning with his 1922 Ph.D. dissertation at Columbia, remain important in their field.
His 1959 book Pickett's Charge is a detailed history of the final attack at Gettysburg.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 8, 2019
Seventeen-year-old Moses Schallenberger was part of the first wagon train to go from Missouri to California. This is his story.
This was clearly written for middle graders. The language is simple, and the font was large, making it an easy read. The forward informs us that the original manuscript, written forty years after the events of 1844, was destroyed by a fire. However, due to a copy being in the hands of someone else, the story was preserved.
It was an interesting read, even if it doesn't go into the details of the arduous journey.
This was clearly written for middle graders. The language is simple, and the font was large, making it an easy read. The forward informs us that the original manuscript, written forty years after the events of 1844, was destroyed by a fire. However, due to a copy being in the hands of someone else, the story was preserved.
It was an interesting read, even if it doesn't go into the details of the arduous journey.
October 21, 2018
In 1844, the first wagon train ever to cross the Sierra Nevadas into California set out from Council Bluffs, Iowa. Eighteen-year-old Mose Schallenberger kept a diary of that journey. It's from Mose's diary that the author writes this true account.
Written for young adults, the tone resembles a tale told face-to-face. It doesn't delve deeply because Mose's diary dates several decades after that fateful trip. Nevertheless it contains fascinating and revealing material. They had to cross a deep river that had no bridge. How did they accomplish it with their wagons and cattle? And why did they choose oxen instead of horses to pull the wagons? They crossed Indian and buffalo country. They crossed desert. And they met Truckee and named a river after him. Why? By the time they reached the Sierra Nevadas where the Donner party years later would perish, they encountered snow, the depth of which they had never experienced. And of course there were the mountains where wagons had to be hauled up and sometimes dismantled.
If you've ever driven the route these pioneers followed, you can appreciate how they struggled without roads or modern conveniences to help them along.
This is a fast read, but enlightening. And it doesn't tell you more than what you want to know.
Written for young adults, the tone resembles a tale told face-to-face. It doesn't delve deeply because Mose's diary dates several decades after that fateful trip. Nevertheless it contains fascinating and revealing material. They had to cross a deep river that had no bridge. How did they accomplish it with their wagons and cattle? And why did they choose oxen instead of horses to pull the wagons? They crossed Indian and buffalo country. They crossed desert. And they met Truckee and named a river after him. Why? By the time they reached the Sierra Nevadas where the Donner party years later would perish, they encountered snow, the depth of which they had never experienced. And of course there were the mountains where wagons had to be hauled up and sometimes dismantled.
If you've ever driven the route these pioneers followed, you can appreciate how they struggled without roads or modern conveniences to help them along.
This is a fast read, but enlightening. And it doesn't tell you more than what you want to know.
June 27, 2011
This book was interesting in that it is sold as fiction, but has supposed truth elements. Most of the book I believe is conjecture as the original manuscripts it is based on were lost due to fire. A good story and indicative of other pioneer adventures, but a little too juvenile in nature.
February 7, 2016
Very simplified story of the first wagon train to successfully make it to California but fascinating for my 8 year old. The author used Mose's actual journal in writing the book, so it sounds accurate. It makes me want to read the original journal!
May 12, 2021
Stewart wrote a fantastic story of Mose Shallenberger, a 17 year old who was in the first successful covered wagon party that made it to California. This book is great for any age to read or have read aloud to them. I read it aloud to my 9, 12, and 13 year olds.
September 20, 2023
This is a great American story of courage, finding the first trail into California from the Eastern states. The book builds to a climax like a good novel, only it isn't a novel, at the end when Moses is trapped in a log cabin living off fox meat and good reading. Amazing book.
October 6, 2023
This book was first published in the 1950s. Lots of use of the word “Indian” instead of more respectful terms. The book seems to treat lightly the mistreatment of Native Americans and the bison that were both in the middle of a near mass extinction.
November 21, 2023
This is one of the best books I've ever read.
I have read it to several 5th grade classes, and every one has been fascinated by it.
When my husband and I were going through Truckee, we stopped at the summit of Donner Pass, and there is a plaque commemorating Mose. I was in awe.
I have read it to several 5th grade classes, and every one has been fascinated by it.
When my husband and I were going through Truckee, we stopped at the summit of Donner Pass, and there is a plaque commemorating Mose. I was in awe.
March 11, 2026
A lovely little chapter book retelling a firsthand account of pioneers going west. The middle has some slow parts, but picks up pace at the end and had a lovely ending. Boys enjoyed it and kept focus.
June 30, 2022
Good kids book based on a firsthand narrative of the trail to California.
June 21, 2023
Fantastic read aloud biography that puts you in the shoes of the first Pioneers traveling to California in the 1840s.
November 23, 2012
"Any pre-adolescent who has not feasted on them has been cheated." Dr. Henry F. Graff, Associate Professor of History, Columbia University, in The New York Times "One of the most critically acclaimed, best-selling children's book series ever published." - The New York Times
"They are ideal teaching aids since they present authentic information on American history in such vivid and realistic manner that boys and girls will read the books voluntarily." Bulletin of the National Association of Secondary Principals
"The LANDMARK series is now so well known to boys and girls that the bare announcement of new titles is enough to send them racing to the nearest bookstore or library. With their attractive format and illustrations, dramatic subjects, and simple writers by seasoned authors, they not only hold the interest of good readers but lure reluctant ones." Chicago Tribune
The book is not fiction. Stewart based the book on a copy of the original manuscript plus interviews with survivors.
October 24, 2014
I read this one with one of my little cousins. It's not a bad book, but there's just a lot more telling than showing. When I was about 10 or 11, I probably would have liked it more because the information on frontier travel was interesting.
March 23, 2010
great so far .teacher is reading 2 us.
Currently reading
February 4, 2010my teacher is reading it to us, so far so good!
July 26, 2016
I appreciated the realistic and historic aspect. I wasn't the captivated by the actual story.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews