author
Merrill J. Mattes
1910–1996
A leading historian of the American overland trails, this longtime National Park Service scholar helped turn places like Scotts Bluff and Fort Laramie into richer, better-documented historic sites. His books and research made the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails vivid for generations of readers.
2 Audiobooks
Colter's Hell and Jackson's Hole The Fur Trappers' Exploration of the Yellowstone and Grand Teton Park Region
by Merrill J. Mattes
Scotts Bluff National Monument, Nebraska
by Merrill J. Mattes
About the author
Born in Congress Park, Illinois, on November 16, 1910, and raised largely in Kansas City, Merrill J. Mattes studied at the University of Missouri and earned a master's degree from the University of Kansas. He joined the National Park Service in 1935 and began the long public-history career that would define his life.
Mattes worked at Scotts Bluff National Monument and also served as acting historian at Fort Laramie during the 1940s. He later became a regional historian for the National Park Service in Omaha, building a reputation as a careful researcher and preservationist with a special gift for western trail history.
He is especially remembered for major works on the Platte River road and the emigrant trails to the West, and for helping inspire trail study and preservation efforts beyond the Park Service. Mattes died on May 5, 1996, in Englewood, Colorado, leaving behind a body of work that still shapes how readers and travelers understand the overland frontier.