Review of Reluctant Frontiersman: James Ross Larkin on the Santa Fe Trail, 1856~57.

Authors

Michael A. Amundson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Date of this Version

1992

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 12:3 (Summer 1992). Copyright © 1992 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

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 His heretofore unpublished journal of his trip and subsequent travels in New Mexico provides a rare glimpse into antebellum southwestern life.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.