Preface v
I The Land and the People
Frémont Crosses the Sierras 1
Colonel John Frémont Describes His Expedition 1
The Desert Barrier 5
Sarah Royce Crosses the Desert 5
A Tour on the Prairies 8
Henry Ellsworth Accompanies Washington Irving Across the Plains 8
The Indians 11
Francis Parkman Describes the Dahcotahs 11
The Trappers 13
Isaac Jones Wistar Endures a Hard Winter 13
The Emigrants 16
Francis Parkman Encounters a Wagon Train 16
II The Conquest
To California by Sea 19
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Visits the Coast of California 20
A Day with the Cow Column 22
Jesse Applegate Herds Cattle on the Oregon Trail 22
The Donner Party Starves 25
Virginia Reed Murphy Survives a Terrible Ordeal 25
Mark Twain Rides the Overland Stage 28
A Memorable Account of Stagecoach Travel from _Roughing It_ 28
The Coming of the Railroad 31
Walt Whitman Writes of the Continental Railroad 31
Samuel Bowles Travels on the Union Pacific 32
III The Mining Frontier
The Discovery of Gold 35
Walter Colton Describes the Effect of the Discovery 36
Eldorado: Bayard Taylor Visits the Mining Camps 37
Mark Twain Doesn’t Strike It Rich 40
IV The Ranching Frontier
The Long Drive 44
Andy Adams Encounters Rustlers 44
V The Farming Frontier
Homesteading in the Dakotas 50
O. E. Rölvaag Pictures the Norwegian Settlers 50
The Land Rush in Oklahoma 55
Hamilton Wicks Races to Guthrie 55
The picture on page 1, George Catlin’s “Buffalo Hunt on Snow Shoes,” was
reprinted through the courtesy of the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of
American History and Art. The picture on page 19, “The Meeting of the
Rails,” was reprinted through the courtesy of the United States Bureau
of Public Roads. The picture on the cover; the picture on page 35, of
gold mining in California; the picture on page 44, of Texas cattle being
driven to the cattle rendezvous; and the picture on page 50, of plowing
on the prairies west of the Mississippi, were reprinted through the
courtesy of the Library of Congress.