Item Detail
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MSS SC 122
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Trip to Montana by Wagon Train
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Overland Trails - Diaries
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Cauthorn, Benjamin Ross
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1865
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Handwritten journal of Cauthorn's overland journey by wagon train from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Virginia City, Montana, and Oregon in 1865. Detailed diary entries describe much of the daily routine, weather, and labor involved in the journey. Cauthorn mentions company politics, trouble with Indians, his feelings about leaving his wife and child in Missouri, and a group of Mormons apparently leaving Utah. Upon arriving in Virginia City, Montana, he found the towns almost abandoned, but observed that a fortune could be made in ranching and farming. Cauthorn traveled with his parents and adult siblings. After falling ill in Montana, he accompanied the rest of his family to Oregon. Cauthorn sailed from Oregon to San Francisco, then traveled by steamer to Panama. He crossed the Isthmus of Panama by rail, and the diary ends with Cauthorn one day's travel from New York.