The Oregon Trail

The so-called Millenials grew up playing a highly pixelated game which supposedly gave them a taste of life on the Oregon Trail, the road from the Midwest to the real West, which was fraught with danger from all manner of doom, like snake bites, cholera and forded rivers gone bad. For a more realistic take on the journey there is Francis Parkman's The Oregon Trail, an observant first-hand depiction of the author's travels along the very edge of the emerging American frontier. At just 23 when he made the journey, Parkman's Oregon Trail is brimful of youthful exuberance and vivid descriptions.