Johnston, John Franklin 1852 and Joseph A. Johnson 1849

Merrill J. Mattes Collection·

One typed page

Dr. John Franklin Johnston, “A Trip to the Gold Fields of California in 1852”

and

handwritten pages with notation “Joseph A. Johnson ’49”

[These pages are barely legible and/or illegible.]

The collection was begun in 1991 by the late Merrill J. Mattes, a co-founder of the Oregon-California Trails Association. That original nucleus was a result of a generous donation from Merrill and reflected his many years as an award-winning National Park Service historian and also included works of his own authorship. The collection is housed at the national Frontier Trails Museum in Independence, Missouri. Here, you have access to many of the original trail diaries he collected in digital form.