The main California Trail is depicted leaving the Omaha area for a point near Fallon, Nevada, where it splits to vault the Sierra Nevada at Donner Pass. That trail ends at Johnson’s Rancho, near present Wheatland, which was the destination of the survivors of the Donner Party of 1846-47.

Also included is the Applegate Trail, which leaves the Humboldt River near Winnemucca, Nevada, to head northward to north central Oregon at Dallas. Many early Oregonians took this trail southward to arrive at the California placers yet in 1848, thus beating the forty-niners, who had to proceed overland from the Missouri River in covered wagons the following year.

The Mormon Trail is included, from Nauvoo, on the east bank of the Mississippi River, to Salt Lake City. This trail was followed by tens of thousands of emigrants from the eastern United States and Europe.

The infamous Hastings Cutoff is also depicted. This is the road taken by the Donner Party, which ultimately cost the lives of many of them in the Sierras. It is shown from Fort Bridger, in southwest Wyoming, to the South Fork of the Humboldt River, where it joins the main California Trail.

Other variants include the Hensley Cutoff, heading north from Salt Lake City to join the main trail at City of Rocks in south central Idaho, and the Hudspeth Cutoff, a short stretch which leaves the main trail south of Fort Hall, in southeastern Idaho to cut over to the main trail near City of Rocks.

Then there is the Lander Road, which leaves the main trail east of the Continental Divide to move northwest to a point near Fort Hall.

Finally, the map book shows the route taken by the emigrants when they “jumped off” from St. Joseph, Mo.—certainly part of the California Trail.

The author has included quotes from emigrant diaries on portions of the map panels, written while the travelers were actually passing the areas depicted by the maps.