Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1992
Abstract
In the fall of 1856, wealthy James Ross Larkin of St. Louis joined a wagon train headed by William Bent, bound for the trader's post on the Santa Fe Trail. Seeking relief from chronic health problems, Larkin instead found adventure. His heretofore unpublished journal of his trip and subsequent travels in New Mexico provides a rare glimpse into antebellum southwestern life. Besides the extensively annotated diary, Barbour also includes background introductions to Larkin, the Santa Fe Trail, the frontier of health seekers, and an 1856 comparison between the trail's endpoints of St. Louis and Santa Fe.
Comments
Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 12:3 (Summer 1992). Copyright © 1992 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.