Peter H. DeLafosse, Editor

A modern day road guide for following the five major Utah emigrant trails: Bidwell-Bartleson Trail, Hastings Cutoff, Hensley's Salt Lake Cutoff, Pioneer (Mormon-Donner) Trail and Spanish Trail, while traveling along today’s highways. Provides historical background and excerpts from pioneer journals. Authors are Steven K. Madsen, Roy D. Tea, Jack B. Tykil, Rush Spedden and Will Bagley with a Selected Bibliography by Harold Schindler. Contains an index, maps and photos.

Softcover: Utah State University Press, 1996
Purchase: OCTA, Amazon, Benchmark Books, Sam Weller's Books

Dave Bigler
Former President, OCTA

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(Softcover Edition)

David L. Bigler, Will Bagley; Editors

Army of Israel compiles dozens of first-hard accounts and other primary sources to tell the story of the most unique command in U.S. military annals and its larger role to the conquest of California and opening of the West, including the blazing of such routes as the Southern California Trail, Cooke's Wagon Road, Mormon-Carson Pass Emigrant Trail and the Salt Lake Cutoff.

Hardcover: The Arthur H. Clark Co., Pub., 2000
Softcover: Utah State University Press, Pub., 2000
Available: Amazon, Benchmark Books, Sam Weller's Books

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(Softcover Edition)

David L. Bigler

Forgotten Kingdom tells of Mormon efforts to establish in Utah an independent theocratic Kingdom of God and of the resulting struggle with national republican ideology, Mormon opponents within and outside of Utah, and the federal government.

Winner, Westerners International's Book of the Year Award, 1998.

"neither faith promoting nor Mormon bashing . . . simply a well-written, informative . . . history of Utah before state-hood."—Denver Westerners Roundup.

Hardcover: The Arthur H. Clark Co., Pub., 2000
Softcover: Utah State University Press, Pub., 2000
Purchase: Amazon, Benchmark Books, Sam Weller's Books

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(Softcover Edition)

David L. Bigler, Editor

Azariah Smith wrote one of only two contemporary eyewitness accounts of the discovery at Sutter's Mill in January 1848 that touched off the massive population shift known as the Gold Rush. Smith, at eighteen a member of the Mormon Battalion, also recorded the experiences of this far-command, including its march across Sonora to blaze the Southern Route to California and opening of wagon roads over the Sierra Nevada and Salt Lake Desert.

Hardcover: University of Utah Press, Pub., 1990 (out of print)
Softcover: Utah State University Press, Pub., 1996
Purchase: OCTA, Amazon, Benchmark Books, Sam Weller's Books

Kristin Johnson, Editor

A collection of documents about the Donner Party, with biographical sketches of the authors and annotations. Includes works by J. Quinn Thornton, Lilburn W. Boggs, Mary Ann Graves, H. A. Wise, J. Ross Browne, Eliza W. Farnham, William C. Graves, F. H. McDougall, James F. Reed, William McCutchen, Jacob Wright Harlan, Virginia Reed, and Lovina Graves; also a roster of Donner Party members, maps, portraits of authors, bibliography, and index.

"Reading this compendium of original, descriptive accounts is compelling, engaging and unforgettable. No Western American frontier history collection can be considered complete without this astonishing book." —Midwest Book Review

Softcover: Utah State University Press, Pub., 1996
Purchase: OCTA, Amazon, Benchmark Books, Sam Weller's Books

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William W. Slaughter, Michael Landon

Companion volume to the PBS special. 

Hardcover: Shadow Mountain Press, Pub., 1998
Purchase: Amazon, Deseret Book, Sam Weller's Books

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William B. Smart, Donna T. Smart; Editors

Over the Rim is the first book about an important but little-known expedition sent by Brigham Young to explore southern Utah. Led by Mormon apostle Parley P. Pratt, the party traveled from Salt Lake City south across the rim of the Great Basin to the Virgin River near future St. George. They brought back to Mormon leaders their first detailed portrait of the country to the south that the church planned to settle.

Hardcover & Softcover: Utah State University Press, Pub., 2000
Purchase: Amazon, Sam Weller's Books

Frank Tortorich, Jr.

This is a Historical Driving guide along 33 miles for California State Highway 88. There are 36 photos and 7 maps. The book directs the reader to numerous spots where one can hike on the Emigrant trail and see the evidence where the wagons went 150 years ago. The book has been well received and is being prepared for its third printing.

"Frank Tortorich here combines the knowledge he has acquired over years of study on the Carson River route with an exceptional ability to make the story of the first Gold Rush Trail over the Sierra Nevada come to life for modern readers."—David Bigler (Past President, OCTA)

Softcover: Wagon Wheel Tours, Pub., 1998 2nd Ed.
Purchase: OCTA, Wagon Wheel Tours ($12.50 prepaid, shipping included)

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Jack Tykal, Editor

A journal of a hunting expedition to the plains of today's Kansas written by a 21-year-old Lieutenant in the British Army, stationed in Montreal. A fascinating insight into mid-19th century America as he traveled with his party from Montreal to St. Louis, via Chicago, and then along the Santa Fe Trail as far as present Larned, KS. He returned via the Ohio River, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New York.

"As a journalist he (Fairholme) proves himself both observant and literate. Additionally, he had some skill as a sketch artist, and the inclusion of fourteen of his sketches . . . adds immeasurably to both the value and interest of his journal. (The book) is a unique and highly recommended contribution to American history in general and the opening up of the American West in particular." The Midwest Book Review

Hardcover: The Arthur H. Clark Co., Pub., 1996
Purchase: Amazon, Benchmark Books