Bedtime Stories, The Oregon Trail, Chapter 3, part-2 and Chapter 4, part-1

Francis Parkman's family was somewhat appalled at his choice of life work, since at the time writing histories of the American wilderness was considered ungentlemanly. Serious historians would study ancient history, or after the fashion of the time, the Spanish Empire. But Parkman's works became so well-received that by the end of his lifetime, histories of early America had become the fashion. Theodore Roosevelt dedicated his four-volume history of the frontier, The Winning of the West (1889–1896), to Parkman.