Writing Assignment #4 Book Review: Susan Magoffin, Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico Susan Magoffin’s diary is a primary document that accounts her experiences traveling along the on the Santa Fe Trail (the Trail). Magoffin, being the first female to travel this trading route, was able to give a true insight to readers of how the conditions of that trail were. Her diary is regarded as the first substantial account of life on the Trail, however is criticized that Magoffin’s white privilege is what made her experience as it was. The critics argue, that the experience of traveling along the Santa Fe Trail as a non-Euro-American, would differ drastically then that of Susan Magoffin. I agree that being an upper-class, white woman, Magoffin
In his book The Oregon Question, author Frederick Merk traces the origin of the Oregon Question to the spring of 1792. Merk argues that it was Captain Gray’s discovery of the mouth of the Columbia River in the May of 1792 that gave the America a claim to the Northwest. Following Gray’s discovery, the Americans solidified territorial claim through occupation and settlement. By 1803, America began to extend its boundaries to the crest of the Rocky Mountains.
When Chris McCandless tragically died in the Alaskan wilderness in 1992, his unexpected disappearance provoked a torrent of questions about his motivations and why he left his family to journey into the wild without any trace. His story told in the book, “Into the Wild,” sparked the interest of people around the nation and warned them of the risks of adventure. In this essay, I will explore whether Chris was justified in leaving his family and going into the wild without a trace. Many can argue that Christopher J. McCandless was right to depart with his family.
After reading the Journals of both Robert Robe and Mary Stuart Bailey I have a better understanding of daily life, common struggles, and attitudes during the 1850’s while traveling westward. Robert Robe’s journal begins in May of 1851 and continues into June. Mary’s Journal starts April 13, 1852 with the last entry on November 8th. These journals clearly highlight the stresses that were developed during there travels. The traveler’s attitudes changed circumstantially as the uncertainty of their future unfolded, depending on the day they could be admiring god’s beauty, determined on surviving, or mourning the loss of their previous life, family, and home (Text 386, 387).
Four, three, two, one, mining gold is not much fun. My Gold Rush Adventure: For five days,I followed the trail of the gold rush” by David Meissner” ;``Women of the Gold Rush :Annie Hall Strong” by the National Park Service.” Both articles talk about hiking and what supplies one needs on the hike. One feels that traveling through the klondike was worth it during the gold rush because people got to experience what it was like for the gold miners. To begin with, Traveling through the klodike gave people numerous opportunities to experience how the gold miners had to live.
In his 1995 essay “The Trouble with Wilderness,” William Cronon declares that “the time has come to rethink wilderness” (69). From the practice of agriculture to masculine frontier fantasies, Cronon argues that Americans have historically defined wilderness as an “island,” separate from their polluted urban industrial homes (69). He traces the idea of wilderness throughout American history, asserting that the idea of untouched, pristine wilderness is a harmful fantasy. By idealizing wilderness from a distance, he argues that people justify the destruction of less sublime landscapes and aggravate environmental conflict.
It is the year 1832 and you’re on a riding along in a caravan with Nathaniel Wyeth, who leads the new group of settlers along a foreign trail. There have been many hardships; lack of food, deaths during the journey. It is no doubt that there were many obstacles travelers faced while traveling on the Oregon Trail, but this matter does not take away from the good that this trail did for the country of America. Some people have said that the ending results and settlements were not worth the loss of the journey to get there. The Oregon Trail was one of the single trails that helped lead to the west coast from the east.
After years of waiting and preparing we started on the journey to the west. We made our way to Independence, Missouri to go on the Oregon Trail which was laid by traders and trapers. While there I became familiar with George Wilson who was also a working family man. A lot of families left together making the trail busy and causing jams..
So there is one way a not so average person helped with westward expansion. In the thirty-third chapter titled ”Reporting to Jefferson” it talks about not only Jefferson yet again, but it talks about Lewis and CLark and how their expedition inspired others to move forward , and discover even more of the
The Alaskan Bush is one of the hardest places to survive without any assistance, supplies, skills, and little food. Jon Krakauer explains in his biography, Into The Wild, how Christopher McCandless ventured into the Alaskan Bush and ultimately perished due to lack of preparation and hubris. McCandless was an intelligent young man who made a few mistakes but overall Krakauer believed that McCandless was not an ignorant adrenalin junkie who had no respect for the land. Krakauer chose to write this biography because he too had the strong desire to discover and explore as he also ventured into the Alaskan Bush when he was a young man, but he survived unlike McCandless. Krakauer’s argument was convincing because he gives credible evidence that McCandless was not foolish like many critics say he was.
The journey that Walton goes on is one of pure discovery, involving adventure. He seeks glory and recognition to make a change on exploration, geography, helping the influence of his country. “I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and I may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man. These are my enticements, and they are sufficient to conquer all fear of danger or death” (Shelley, 15).
Christopher McCandless, whose life and journey are the main ideas of the novel “Into the Wild”, was about an adolescent who, upon graduating from Emory College, decided to journey off into the Alaskan wilderness. He had given away his savings of $25,000 and changed his name to Alex Supertramp. His voyage to Alaska took him two years during which he traveled all across the country doing anomalous jobs and making friends. He inevitably made it to Alaska were he entered the wilderness with little more than a few books, a sleeping bag and a ten pound bag of rice. A couple months after his first day in the wild, his body was found in an abandoned bus.
In the 2013 online article, “The Chris McCandless Obsession Problem”, author Diana Saverin describes the Alaskan wilderness travel phenomenon along with attempting to uncover the ‘McCandless Pilgrims’ “root of motivation. Sparked by the release of both Jon Krakauer’s and Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild”, numerous individuals pack their backpacks and eagerly step into their (sometimes newly-bought) hiking shoes and tramp into the Alaskan Wild to pay homage to their hero Chris McCandless. Filled with personal anecdotes and interviews, Severin’s Outside article takes a new approach Into the Wild commentary by directing attention to the lives McCandless’s story affected indirectly rather than critiquing on McCandless himself. In response to what appears to be a huge amount of troubled McCandless-inspired tramping stories, Saverin provides an unbiased rationale as a attempt to explain why so many are “willing to risk injury, and even death, to..visit the last home of Alaska’s most famous adventure casualty”. Saverin begins her article with anecdote- telling the unfortunate experience of young lovers and adept adventure seekers, Ackerman and Gros.
This last summer I had the privilege to reenact an important part of history - the pioneer journey west. Although my trek was somewhat difficult, I had many great experiences. Pulling and pushing a heavily laden pioneer handcart 7 miles a day for 4 days was difficult. But surprisingly, the hardest part of the experience for me was enduring the modern day 12 hour long car ride back. Being cooped up with a bunch of 12 year old boys who incessantly sang along to Taylor Swift was torturous.
America was a newly formed country with a rugged, untamed landscape that only the adventurous spirits of the often fabled, but very real mountain men matched. Jim Bridger, Jeremiah Smith, Kit Carson, and a man who history cannot agree, whether it is his birth year or actual events from his life, Jeremiah Liver-Eating Johnson, are notable mountain men that existed and live on in facts, legendary tales, and the imaginations of historians an adventurers alike. Well, what is a mountain man? The University of Virginia’s American Studies’ article, The Stuff of Legends: The Ways of the Mountain Men explain a mountain man was someone who went to the Rocky Mountains to trap beavers.
