Bernard J. Reid’s diary, discovered only a few years ago, is the account of his journey overland to California in 1849 on the Pioneer Line, the first commercial wagon train to cross the plains. For $200 its organizers promised to transport passengers to the California goldfields in the incredibly swift period of 60 days. The wagon train set out from Independence, Missouri, in mid-May with 42 wagons, 300 mules, and nearly 200 passengers (all men), teamsters, and herders, but mis-managed and plagued by cholera and scurvy, the Pioneer Line’s journey became, in Reid’s words, “a long, dreadful dream”. Many passengers died along the way and supplies were abandoned when the unseasoned mules failed early on the trail. Rations were almost exhausted when the train reached the Humboldt River in what is now Nevada, and most of the survivors trudged on foot over the snow-capped Sierra Nevada. A pitiful remnant of the wagon train, carrying a handful of sick and dying passengers, arrived at the goldfields in October. Reid’s diary is the richest account of this unique wagon train’s memorable journey, and one of the best of all gold rush diaries. Young and intelligent, Reid was a keen observer and a faithful recorder of his experiences and feelings. His diary offers a fascinating view of mid-nineteenth-century Americans thrown together in difficult circumstances for months of grueling travel.