The Emigrants' Guide to California (Narratives of the Trans-Mississippi Frontier.)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book of the pioneer days
Review: This is a reprint of the actual guide book used by many pioneers. In various diaries it is referred to as "Ware's Guide." I found it to be amazingly accurate and was shocked to learn that Joseph Ware never completed the trip west. He was abandoned on the trail when he took ill and died where they left him.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book of the pioneer days
Review: This is a reprint of the actual guide book used by many pioneers. In various diaries it is referred to as "Ware's Guide." I found it to be amazingly accurate and was shocked to learn that Joseph Ware never completed the trip west. He was abandoned on the trail when he took ill and died where they left him.

Rating:
Summary: A real consumer test of this title
Review: While today's reviewer's may find this title "amazingly accurate", the emigrants who used it did not. In a July 20 1849 dairy entry, traveler Bennett C. Clark wrote that "[we] came to the river and nooned -- grass only tolerable. We begin to be greatly disappointed in our calculations of finding good grass on this measly Humboldt [river] as Mr. Ware had prepared us to expect. Let no traveler hereafter be governed by Wares Gudie as it is perfectly worthless."

Rating:
Summary: A real consumer test of this title
Review: While today's reviewer's may find this title "amazingly accurate", the emigrants who used it did not. In a July 20 1849 dairy entry, traveler Bennett C. Clark wrote that "[we] came to the river and nooned -- grass only tolerable. We begin to be greatly disappointed in our calculations of finding good grass on this measly Humboldt [river] as Mr. Ware had prepared us to expect. Let no traveler hereafter be governed by Wares Gudie as it is perfectly worthless."