Days on the Road, Crossing the Plains in 1865: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Days on the Road, Crossing the Plains in 1865, credited to Sarah Raymond Herndon, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Days on the Road, Crossing the Plains in 1865 by Sarah Raymond Herndon. Read in English by Sue Anderson. “We had spent almost all our money for toll, ferrying and other expenses on the road. It might be a serious matter to be in a strange place without money . . . There is nothing we can spare so well as Dick. . . . It would not do to be sentimental under existing circumstances.” This is the practical pioneer woman Sarah Raymond Herndon writing in her journal about selling her horse to finance the final days of her family’s trek across the plains to Montana. However, when her brother, Hillhouse, actually sells her beloved pony, Sarah is distraught. “I sobbed out loud. I could not help crying. I let the purse (with the money) roll out of my lap into the bottom of the wagon.” But then, she stiffens her resolve and displays a quiet sense of humor: “Of course, I knew the wagon bed was tight, and there was no danger of (the purse) being lost.” Sarah became the first school teacher in Virginia City, Montana. Her account of crossing the plains in 1865 is rich in emotion and incident. Summary by Sue Anderson

Recording facts

• Recording title: Days on the Road, Crossing the Plains in 1865
• Author credits: Sarah Raymond Herndon
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 15
• Listed recording duration: 5:36:09

Catalogue topics

• montana
• immigration
• immigrant
• emigration
• missouri
• overland journey to the pacific
• west (u.s.) - description and travel
• emmigrant

Track guide

1. 01 - We Start, Our First Camp — 22:16
2. 02 - Bloomfield, Iowa, Miss Milburn's Love Story — 20:09
3. 03 - The Icarian Community, A Fatal Accident — 27:12
4. 04 - We Have Our Pictures Taken, On the Banks of the Platte — 20:01
5. 05 - Fort Kearney, Eleven Graves — 21:07
6. 06 - Beaux, We Decide to Go to Montana — 23:14
7. 07 - The Mountains in Sight, A Town of Tents and Wagons — 23:01
8. 08 - We Carve Our Names in Stone, Laramie Plains — 23:27
9. 09 - We Cross the North Platte, Neelie is Sick — 23:03
10. 10 - Our Train Divided, On Bitter Creek — 26:18
11. 11 - A Fatal Shooting, We Leave the Train — 22:07
12. 12 - Mr. Curry's Horses Stolen, The Wanderers' Return — 24:32
13. 13 - Mormon Towns in Idaho, We Meet Men Returning from the Mines — 23:29
14. 14 - Dick is Sold, Oh, Dear — 19:59
15. 15 - The End of Our Journey, A Letter from Dr. Howard — 16:14

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.