Oregon-California Trails Association | California Emigrant

California Emigrant – Letters, 1849 and 1850

Merrill J. Mattes Collection·

Typed and printed pages from a book

Wyman, Walker. California Emigrant Letters. New York: Bookman Associates Publishers, 1952

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.