"No. 7"—as Carpenter, the youngest of seven children, called himself—was born in Missouri in 1854 and moved west with his family, first to Kansas, then to the settlements near Pikes Peak, and finally, in 1872, to Texas with his elder brother. From the time he made his first cattle drive, he wanted no other life but that of herding longhorns across the free and flat grasslands of the West. His schooling was the trail, the campfire, the saddle. In 1900, after a full and active life, he retired ...

He was the greatest Indian warrior of the nineteenth century. His victory over General Custer at the battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 was the worst defeat inflicted on the frontier Army. And the death of Crazy Horse in federal custody has remained a controversy for more than a century.The Killing of Crazy Horse pieces together the many sources of fear and misunderstanding that resulted in an official killing hard to distinguish from a crime. A rich cast of characters, whit...

On 14 May 1804, one Captain Meriwether Lewis and his companion William Clark led a thirty-three-man expedition to the new lands of Louisiana. 8,000 miles and two years later, after rafting up the Missouri and crossing the Rocky Mountains, they reached the far side of the world, the Pacific Ocean.Fredrick Nolan explores the first US settlers of the American West, including the remarkable stories of unsung heroes and heroines, the bloody battles between settlers and the native Americ...

Born into every generation are a few restless souls who long for adventure. In the early 1800s this wild breed became mountain men who headed up the Missouri, crossed the Rock-ies and continued west, hunting, trapping and exploring as they went.One mountainman,reflecting the general attitude of the day, wrote, 'We found the richest place for beaver we had yet come across, and it took us forty days to clean that section.' Valley by valley, stream by stream, the mountain men eliminat...

Charles Marion Russell (1864–1926),also known as Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an artist of the Old American West. Russell created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Indians, and landscapes set in the Western United States and in Alberta, Canada, in addition to bronze sculptures. Known as 'the cowboy artist',Russell was also a storyteller and author.Hugh Glass (1780–1833) was an American fur trapper and frontiersman who was mauled by a grizzly bear and left for dead by...

The movie Jeremiah Johnson introduced millions to the legendary mountain man, John Johnson. The real Johnson was a far cry from the Redford version. Standing 6'2" in his stocking feet and weighing nearly 250 pounds, he was a mountain man among mountain men, one of the toughest customers on the western frontier. As the story goes, one morning in 1847 Johnson returned to his Rocky Mountain trapper's cabin to find the remains of his murdered Indian wife and her unborn child. He vowed vengeanc...

The diaries and letters of women who braved the overland trails during the great nineteenth-century westward migration are treasured documents in the study of the American West. These eight firsthand accounts are among the best ever written. They were selected for the power with which they portray the hardship, adventure, and boundless love for friends and family that characterized the overland experience. Some were written with the skilled pens of educated women. Others bear the marks of ...

This is a story about how it might have been in 1877 when Charles Maybee moved his family from Kansas to Oregon. It is based a note passed down through the family from his oldest son. Supporting characters, events and personal interactions are fictional. But tracing the route that Charles took, and knowing the hazards he faced in those days before automobiles existed, is like being there with him.Charles is tired of scraping out a living in Kansas and believes a homestead in Oregon...

Through bravery, courage and strength of character these men and women stood head and shoulders above their contemporaries.They are our true Western American Heroes.

Overnight settlements, better known as "Hell on Wheels," sprang up as the transcontinental railroad crossed Nebraska and Wyoming. They brought opportunity not only for legitimate business but also for gamblers, land speculators, prostitutes, and thugs. Dick Kreck tells their stories along with the heroic individuals who managed, finally, to create permanent towns in the interior West.

1877, the year after Sitting Bull's victory at Little Big Horn, the U.S. cavalry chases the Nez Perce nation from its homeland in Oregon's Wallowa Valley. Chief Joseph escapes, leading 800 men, women and children and thousands of horses on an amazing 1700 mile retreat, outwitting five separate U.S. army divisions in a race to reach the Sioux in Canada â’ to unite with them, the Crow, Blackfeet and other native peoples in a war for the American northwest.THE YEAR AFTER CUSTER recre...

The Oregon Trail was an arduous often dangerous trek across this great country of ours. It was filled with life decisions, battling the elements, and braving the Native Americans along the way. Have you ever felt that the Pioneers had all the fun? Join a wagon train as it journeys across all 2,000 miles of the Oregon Trail. You get to make the decisions along the way and help or hinder your family make it to their destination.