Though some American settlers had traveled to Oregon and California in the 1830s, West-bound wagon trains really started heading out in great...
The Oregon Trail: Part 1
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pioneer life
Elderberries: Not Just for Your Health
Elderberries were popular on the frontier and were used in multiple ways. Both the snowy white flowers and deep dark berries were made into...
Tombstone’s Naked Chef
Isaac “Little Jakey” Jacobs raced his way into history. Tombstone, Arizona, is known for many things, but I’d bet you’ve never heard of its...
Trail Drives: Code of the Trail
Was there an understanding among trail drive bosses that no two drives left at the same time? Did trail drives ever intersect and cause a problem as...
Tragedy on the Oregon-California Trail
For the most part, the women did not want to leave friends, travel some 2,000 miles home and make that trek of several months. Most of it was...
True Grit
Eighteen-year-old Susan Magoffin traveled West with her lady’s maid on the Santa Fe Trail. Susan Shelby Magoffin was an unlikely traveler when she...
Stagecoaches and Horse Teams
Normally a stagecoach was pulled by what was known as a 6-up hitch. Less common was a 4-up or four horses. The wheel team on a 6-up, those at the...
A Woman’s Perspective of Life on the Oregon Trail
For the most part, the women did not want to leave home. They only went because their husbands or fathers insisted. And on the journey, they cooked...
What was the “Romance of the Old West?”
Life always looks a lot better in hindsight. Movies have cleaned up and sanitized life in the West. The romance of the West meant many things to...
Fighting Earps, Rattlesnakes and the Birds and the Bees
Did any of the “Fighting Earps” have children? Warren Rutherford (Phoenix, Arizona) Nicholas Earp and his first wife, Abigail Storm, had two...
Prairie Fever
Prairie Fever was also known as “Prairie Madness.” It affected settlers emigrating to the Great Plains following the Homestead Act of 1862. It...