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A Route for the Overland Stage:

James H. Simpson’s 1859 Trail Across the Great Basin

Jesse G. Petersen

Foreword by David L. Bigler

 

Seven Months to Oregon
Harold J. Peters

The Mormon Trail Revisited
Gregory M. Franzwa

          My Life As a Jarhead
Ralph Walker-Willis
The Lincoln Highway: California
Gregory M. Franzwa
 

Old Oregon Trail Wall Map
Irvin Shope

The Franklin Story

Thomas Hill Hubbard

History As They Lived It
Margaret Kimball Brown

Alice’s Drive 
Alice Huyler Ramsey

William Henry Jackson's Oregon Trail
Portfolio of postcards

A Route for the Overland Stage:

James H. Simpson’s 1859 Trail Across the Great Basin

 

Jesse G. Petersen

Foreword by David L. Bigler

 

 

The 1859 exploration of the Great Basin by army topographical engineer James Simpson opened up one of the West’s most important transportation and communications corridors, a vital link between the Pacific Coast and the rest of the nation. It became the route of the Pony Express and the Overland Mail and Stage, the line of the Pacific telegraph, a major wagon road for freighters and emigrants, and later, the historic 1913 Lincoln Highway.

 

No one has accurately tracked or mapped Simpson’s original route until now. Jesse Petersen shows in words, maps, and photos exactly where the explorer went, and camped. Sharing his detective-like reasoning as he walked or drove the entire trail west, and Simpson’s variant route returning east, Petersen takes readers on a mountain and desert trek through some of America’s most remote and striking landscapes. Included in the appendix are latitude/longitude GPS readings for 338 sites along the Simpson trail.

 

8.5 x 11 inches, 240 pages, 106 photos, 69 maps, 4 drawings
ISBN 978-0-87421-636-3
(Utah State University Press, marketed by The Patrice Press)
appendix, notes, index,
paperback only, $24.95 + $4.95 s/h.

Seven Months to Oregon: 1853

Harold J. Peters

 

443 pp., 51 illustrations (maps, photos, charts), Foreword by Mark O. Hatfield, Bibliography, Index

 

A remarkable new book of diary and reminiscent accounts of several missionary families who traveled from Upstate New York to Oregon. Gustavus Hines, two of his brothers, their families, and trail companions wrote extensively of the trip. They traveled by horseback, overland stage, and train to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, steamboats to Westport, and by covered wagons on the well-beaten Oregon Trail. Remarkably literate journalists, they wrote almost nightly, and although they traveled together their accounts are surprisingly diverse. The oldest brother drowned while fording the Snake River west of Fort Boise. A fourth brother applied for missionary service too late to accompany the overlanders and traveled to the Willamette Valley by sea, crossing to the Pacific Ocean over the Isthmus of Panama.

 

John Mack Faragher, author of Women and Men on the Overland Trails, wrote this about the new book: “Bringing together several firsthand accounts of a family’s overland migration in 1853, Peters vividly recaptures the excitement, the drudgery, the hope, and the heartbreak of ordinary people in extraordinary times.”

This book is a must for those who love the history of the Oregon Trail.

Cloth, $39.95, ISBN 1-880397-66-8

Paperback, $24.95, ISBN 1-880397-65-X

The Mormon Trail Revisited

Gregory M. Franzwa

 

The Mormon Trail Revisited directs today's motorists to the exact route of the 1846-47 Mormon Pioneer Trail, as closely as possible over today's roadways, more than 90 percent gravel and in excellent condition. The 284-page book combines driving directions, historical vignettes, and more than 200 photographs of the trail and historic sites along the 1,400-mile trek. The route extends from Nauvoo, Ill., on the east bank of the Mississippi River, across southern Iowa to Council Bluffs; across Nebraska from Omaha to Scotts Bluff; across Wyoming (mostly on the route of the Oregon Trail) to Fort Bridger, and from the Utah-Wyoming border to downtown Salt Lake City, where the first plow bit into the virgin soil on July 23, 1847. It's thrilling, every inch of the way.


Paperback ISBN 1-880397-64-1, $24.95
Hardcover ISBN 1-880397-63-3, $39.95

My Life As a Jarhead
Ralph Walker-Willis, 2000, Tucson, The Patrice Press,
137 pp., 15 photographs, $12.95, pb only.
ISBN 1-880397-37-4

"A terrific blast to my rear slammed me flat on my face. Debris fell all over and around me. A very large something slammed down beside me. I realized it was, until a minute before, a human being. Now it was almost beyond recognition, burned black and bloated, its arms and legs still jerking like a puppet."

That’s how Ralph Willis described his first moments on the beach at Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945. After many days of ferocious combat, he and his exhausted comrades were invigorated when they saw the American flag being raised atop Mount Suribachi in one of the most dramatic moments of World War II. With a clear, easy-to-read style, Willis alternates both humor and poignancy in describing the ubiquitous K rations or the killing of his comrades.

The Lincoln Highway: California
Gregory M. Franzwa

The sixth and final volume of the western state-by-state Lincoln Highway series is now in print. The 211-page deluxe hardcover, with 120 photos and 128 full-page maps, covers all four legs of the Lincoln Highway, 1913-1928. The text portion gives a complete history of the road, including a driving-hiking guide.
The northern route starts just west of Verdi, Nev., loops over the Dog Valley Road and on over Donner Pass—then down the slope to Sacramento. The main road extends southwest of the capital, through Stockton and Oakland, then across the bay to the Western Terminus at San Francisco.
The southern road extends from the south shore of Lake Tahoe to Sacramento. The 1928 version proceeds southwest from Sacramento through Vacaville, Fairfield, Vallejo, and on to Berkeley.
ISBN: 1-880397-58-7, $39.95
The other five volumes are also in print: Iowa, $34.95; Nebraska, $34.95; Wyoming, $34.95; Utah, $39.95; and Nevada, $44.95. S/h is $4.95 for the first book in the order; $1.50 for each additional book.

Old Oregon Trail Wall Map

Irvin Shope

This three-color map shows the routes of 13 western trails, including the Oregon, California, Barlow, Lewis & Clark, Santa Fe, Overland Stage, Pony Express, and others.

High gloss, 100 lb. paper,
24¾" x 16½".
Patrice Press retailer discounts apply. $3.95

 

The Franklin Story

Thomas Hill Hubbard

Publication of this deluxe hardcover, ISBN 1-880397-60-9, on the famous air-cooled Franklin automobile, was subsidized by the Thomas Hill Hubbard Foundation of Tucson, Arizona. It is available at the Franklin Automobile Museum, 3420 North Vine Avenue, Tucson, or from The Patrice Press, Tooele, Utah. No expense was spared to bring this work to fruition. The book retails for $44.95, plus $4.95 s/h, and that absolutely is a bargain.

 

 This 324-page, 8½” x 11” book is a compilation of dozens of articles and newsletters written and published in the middle and late twentieth century by Thomas Hill Hubbard (1925-1993), easily the most skilled of the Franklin restorers and certainly one of the most enthusiastic Franklin collectors. Hubbard restored many classic Franklins now on display in his expansive museum in Tucson, but also for the late William Harrah—some of them still on display in the National Automobile Museum in Reno.

 

Many of the articles were originally published in Air Cooled News, a publication of the H. H. Franklin Club. That organization was founded by Hubbard.

 

The book contains an amazing 583 photographs of historic Franklins (or parts of Franklins), plus seventy-five historical documents, mostly engineering drawings. In addition, there are sixty-eight photos of meticulously restored Franklins reproduced in full, glowing color. Some of the photos feature famous Americans proudly seated in their new Franklins, including Col. Charles A. Lindbergh. The front endsheets have a photograph of the Franklin plant in Syracuse, New York. The picture is sixteen inches wide. The back sheets have an engineering drawing of a 1930 series 145 Franklin, also sixteen inches wide.

The city of Tucson has been less than supportive of the museum, one of the town’s best-kept secrets. Ensnarled in bureaucratic red tape, the directors of the foundation threw up their hands and accepted more than $200,000 in donations for the purchase of a 73-acre tract in the city of Cazenovia, New York. The site is less than twenty miles southeast of Syracuse, former headquarters of the manufacturing company. The H. H. Franklin Company went out of business during the Great Depression.

Construction on a multi-million dollar complex to house the Hubbard collection will start soon. The new museum is expected to open late in this decade.

 

History As They Lived It

Margaret Kimball Brown
348 pp + xxii, illus., maps, appendix, references, index, paperback only,
ISBN 1-880397-57-9, $22.95 + $4.95 s/h

Once every two or three decades a book is published casting new light on almost forgotten towns of the middle Mississippi Valley. Natalia Belting’s Kaskaskia Under the French Regime is one. Carl Ekberg’s towering Colonial Ste. Genevieve is another. Now, Margaret Kimball Brown takes us back to 1722, the founding of Prairie du Rocher, and brings us forward to the twenty-first century. Wedding the skills of a trained and careful historian to a delightful brand of journalism, she presents this fascinating study of a lively little community.

 

The appearance of History As They Lived It at this particular time is most welcome, for it brings together the fully ripened thoughts of a mature scholar at the very moment that students of the Illinois Country need such a book.

—Carl J. Ekberg, Ph.D., author of Colonial Ste. Genevieve, An Adventure in the Mississippi Valley

 

In History As They Lived It, Margaret Kimball Brown displays at once the curiosity of the archaeologist, the tenacity of the archivist, the broad view of the sociologist, and the discipline and analysis of the historian. It returns to us the many particulars and motifs that help us to identify (and accept with enduring gratitude) the ethos that has made Prairie du Rocher, our second mother, a very special community.

—Dan Franklin, coauthor of three major books published by McGraw Hill.

                                                           

Dr. Brown’s work is unique and fills a major void in the history of Midwestern communities, as she examines over a period of some two hundred years the long and unusual persistence of the French cultural identity, the integration of early American arrivals into this culture, and lastly the process of eventual French integration into American culture.

—Pierre LeBeau, Professor of History, North Central College, Naperville, Ill.

 

    About the Author

 

Margaret Kimball Brown earned the Ph.D. in anthropology from Michigan State University in 1973. She served as site manager of Cahokia Mounds Historic Site from 1984 to 1998, where her work earned high honors and brought international fame to the Illinois landmark. She was staff archaeologist/chief archaeologist of the Illinois Department of Conservation from 1975 to 1984. She has lived in Prairie du Rocher for many years.

 

Alice’s Drive 
Alice Huyler Ramsey

265 pp, 161 illustrations, 108 notes, index. 
ISBN 1-880397-56-0, $19.95 plus $4.95 s/h, 
paperback only .

This is what leading historians have to say about Alice Ramsey:

"By being the first woman to drive a car across the United States in 1909, Alice Ramsey proved without doubt that America’s burgeoning love affair with the new-fangled horseless carriage and the open road applied equally to both sexes. Alice’s Drive puts us in the front seat of her brand new Maxwell DA to join in her grand and historic adventure."

—Dayton Duncan, author of Horatio’s Drive: America’s First Road Trip; Out West: A Journey through Lewis and Clark’s America; and several other books about American history.

"Thanks to The Patrice Press, we now have Alice Ramsey’s hard-to-find book in beautiful form, with extras spilling out of the rumble seat. With maps, then-and-now photos and postcards, and marvelous contemporary newspaper articles, it makes me want to follow her tire tracks all over again, from sea to shining sea!"

—David Haward Bain, author of Empire Express and The Old Iron Road

"Ten years before women were given the right to vote, Alice Ramsey drove her motorcar across America, following much of the route that would become the Lincoln Highway four years later. This Patrice Press edition not only reprints Ramsey's book, but includes more than 100 additional pages of annotations and explanatory material. A must-have for your motoring library."

—Chris Plummer, national president, Lincoln Highway Association

"Like millions of American women before her and since, Alice Ramsey did something brave, adventurous, and now largely forgotten. This fine book brings her back to life, gives us context for her journey, and reminds us that women have taken to the road with every bit as much gusto as men."

—Drake Hokanson, writer and photographer, is the author of Lincoln Highway: Main Street across America and other books

Thomas Hart Benton Oregon Trail Postcards
A Collection of 12 Prints from the Museum of Nebraska Art

Thomas Hart Benton illustrated the most popular edition of Francis Parkman’s The Oregon Trail, with incredibly luminescent paintings. Some of those works, created in 1945, are the basis of this portfolio of twelve postcards. Long out of print, the set has been reprinted and is once more on the shelves of The Patrice Press. $3.95.

The Lincoln Highway: Nevada
Gregory M. Franzwa and Jesse G. Petersen

The hardcover version, ISBN 1-880397-51-X, retails for $44.95. The limited edition of fifteen copies bound in top-grain leather, ISBN 1-880397-52-8, is $150.00.

The fifth book in our ongoing state-by-state series on the Lincoln Highway is now in print, and at 302 pages it is the largest yet. There are 165 photos, most of them snapshots of the Lincoln Highway as it appeared in the 1920s, and some were taken during the extensive research trips of 2003. There are 208 full-page map panels. The book measures 8½ x 11 inches, available in hardcover only.

The text includes a complete driving guide, telling the traveler how to follow the historic road wherever it can be reached safely with the family car. It also offers historical vignettes on the history of the highway as it crosses the Silver State on "the loneliest road in America," US 50. There are quotes from early travelers—Alice Ramsey, Bellamy Partridge, Effie Gladding, and others. One of the most interesting segments is Jess Petersen’s explanation of his methodology in locating traces of the early Lincoln Highway.

The Lincoln Highway splits west of Fallon, with the Truckee Branch proceeding through Reno and into California over Donner Pass. The Pioneer Branch proceeds through Dayton and Carson City, to take one of the most beautiful mountain roads in America over the Sierra Nevada to Lake Tahoe.

Beyond the Frontier: A History of St. Louis to 1821
Frederick A. Hodes, Ph.D.

Available as a deluxe paperback, ISBN 1-880397-53-6, for $19.95—certainly the best book bargain we’ve seen in a long, long time. 
A hardcover edition, ISBN 1-880397-54-4, is also available, for $39.95.

The Patrice Press is proud to announce the publication of Beyond the Frontier: A History of St. Louis to 1821, by Frederick A. Hodes, Ph.D. It could well be the most important book ever published on the subject—at 676 pages certainly the most comprehensive.

Less than four centuries ago the site was densely forested, with no permanent human habitation. Indian tribes moved in and out, and soon Catholic missionaries roamed the area, trying to save their souls. It was not until February 14, 1764, that Pierre Laclede’s boat touched the limestone ledges, bringing civilization to the stair step of benches leading to the west.

Gradually the village picked up population, and the sovereignty changed from the French to the Spanish. When the French on the east bank of the Mississippi River learned of the pending Americanization of the Illinois Bottoms, there was an exodus to the west bank. Still, growth was slow, compared to what would follow in the mid-nineteenth century. Dr. Hodes takes us through the formative years, patiently and carefully, leading up to statehood, in 1821.

Before closing his masterwork, he takes us on a literary journey that, as far as we know, has never been done before. He asks us to imagine an afternoon walk in 1820, starting a few blocks south of what is now the Poplar Street Bridge. As he takes us north along the riverfront, he points out each house or business, on both sides of the street—introducing us to the people who live there and tells us what they do for a living. Walking to the north, almost to the Big Mound (source of the St. Louis nickname, "Mound City"), he turns us a block to the west.

And then we start a walk to the south, with each house identified, many of the citizens introduced.

It’s a quiet walk, as you stroll those dirt streets. It seems as if you actually stop and silently talk to those villagers. Silent talk? Sure, because they’ve all been gone almost two centuries.

The book is amplified with more than 1,500 notes, a massive bibliography, and a comprehensive index. Product of a twenty-five-year study, the scholarship is impeccable. But trust us—with all the care put into it, it is beyond interesting—in many places it is downright thrilling.

This is the first book of a projected series of five, and the author is already deep into the research for the second volume, which will take the history to 1850.

William Henry Jackson's Oregon Trail: Portfolio of postcards

12 postcards, $3.95 -- shipping only $1.95

Our portfolio of postcards painted by William Henry Jackson had been out of print for about a year, but is now back in print and we have a lot of them. The album has a beautiful new cover, featuring Jackson’s famous "Approaching Chimney Rock."

The other eleven scenes in the portfolio are: Independence Rock, Lightning Storm, Yoking a Wild Bull, Crossing the South Platte River, Barlow Cutoff, Sand Hills of the Platte Valley, Westport Landing, Mitchell Pass, Grub Pile, Rock Creek Station, and Three Island Crossing.

The collection, sold only as a set, retails for $3.95, and we have instituted a special shipping price of $1.95 for First Class mailing of one set; and 50¢ more for each additional set.

Jackson, 1843-1942, became one of the great pioneer photographers of the American West. His first western journey was as an ox drover in 1866. An accomplished artist, three of his pen-and-ink sketches were made during that adventure are among the postcards in the portfolio. The other scenes were painted long after his retirement from his photographic studio. He painted almost to the end of his life, and died just a few months short of his 100th birthday.

 

The Lincoln Highway: Utah
Gregory M. Franzwa and Jesse G. Petersen

Detailed driving directions to the 1913 route of America’s first transcontinental highway, the 1913 route, the 1919 Goodyear Cutoff, the 1913-1915 routing through Ogden, and the final routing to Wendover. History, historic and contemporary photos, driving directions, and 134 full-page maps. The first three volumes of the set are offered for $34.95 each—Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming. The latest book will retail for $39.95. All are hardcover. (Series subscribers will receive the usual $5 discount) A limited numbered edition bound in top grain leather, with ribbon markers, will sell for $150, or $135 to subscribers.

Copyright © 2006 Patrice Press. All rights reserved.