William Audley Maxwell

Crossing the Plains: a First Hand Narrative of the Early Pioneer Trail to California in 1857 William Audley Maxwell

A pioneer tells his story of the West

This is the story of the legendary pioneers of the westward expansion of the American people from the comparatively early period of the mid-1850s. Maxwell and his family set out for California in the famous 'prairie schooner'-covered wagons drawn by oxen or mule teams. It was a long, slow perilous journey which many would never complete-for them it would end in a lonely grave beside the trail. The dangers of this extraordinary exodus through the unknown included every complexion of weather and terrain the wilderness of the great American interior could offer or contrive, the threat of bandits and raiding Indians and the debilitation of extreme hardship and sickness. These were an intrepid people by any standard and in the hope of creating a better life they forged the beginnings of a modern nation. This is an invaluable first hand account by one who experienced every mile of a historically momentous movement.