Oregon-California Trails Association | Pritchard, James A. – The Overland Diary, from Kentucky to California, 1849

Pritchard, James A. – The Overland Diary, from Kentucky to California, 1849

Cave Springs Collection·

Six printed pages

Four pages from a book “The Overland Diary of James A. Pritchard of Kentucky to California in 1849” Edited by Dale L.Morgan, [Denver] Fred A. Rosenstock, The Old West Publishing Company, 1959

Two pages of newspaper clippings about the Pritchard diary

The collection was begun in 1991 by the late Merrill J. Mattes, a co-founder of the Oregon-California Trails Association. That original nucleus was a result of a generous donation from Merrill and reflected his many years as an award-winning National Park Service historian and also included works of his own authorship. The collection is housed at the national Frontier Trails Museum in Independence, Missouri. Here, you have access to many of the original trail diaries he collected in digital form.