At age 20, Pierre Jean De Smet left his native Belgium and came to America, where, in 1821, he entered the Jesuit novitiate in Maryland. He studied...
On the Trail of Father Pierre De Smet
read more
Candy Moulton
An Englishman’s Adventure
Hundreds of people kept journals highlighting their travels across America in the 19th century, but Evelyn Booth’s account of the journey he and...
A Mission Tour of the Pacific Northwest
The Indians of the Columbia Basin first came into contact with Christian missionaries in 1825, when the chiefs of the Kutenai and Spokan tribes each...
On the Trail of the Buffalo Hunters
A bull bison looked at me from the diorama at the Boot Hill Museum in Dodge City, Kansas, when I began to hear a rumble. As the sound in the room...
Wagons Ho!
Joseph Meek and Robert Newell knew the landscape of the West by 1840, since both had been working beaver streams throughout the Rockies and beyond...
Wyoming at 125: Still Bucking
Those of us who are Wyoming-born residents relish the fact that we live in the least-populated state in the nation. As our former governor Mike...
Idaho Celebrates 125 Years of Statehood
Idaho marks a century and a quarter of statehood in 2015 and while much has happened to define the state during the past 125 years, the landscape...
Exploring the Old Oregon Country
David Thompson was fourteen when he began his life in North America as a clerk’s apprentice with the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). He may have been in...
Mystery of Mists and Mountain Men
Writing a biography about John Colter, who left behind no journal, letters or other reminiscences, was the daunting task of Ronald M. Angelin and...
Hail, Columbia!
All across the Pacific Northwest are reminders of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-06, although no tangible physical evidence remains. There...
Love Song to the Plains and the Desert West
Each year Western Writers of America (WWA) adds a distinguished writer to the Western Writers Hall of Fame (HOF). With the breadth and depth of...
Gems Along the Continental Divide
The backbone of the continent—the Continental Divide—is rocky and rugged in places,...