Plummer, Craig Samuel -Letters Written Between 1821-1900

Merrill J. Mattes Collection·

“I have just been to another tent to see a sick Californian; his sickness
is from exposure but not dangerous. I know of but one death among those who arrived at the bluffs and two on the road from accidents with firearms. The country here abounds in game of all kinds.” ~ a letter to his wife.

Letters written by Samuel C. Plummer, of Pennsylvania, in 1850, as he traveled west to California.
He left Muscatine, Iowa on March 16, 1850, headed for Placerville, California.
11 Pages

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.