Publisher's Synopsis
From the start of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1803 to the San Francisco Earthquake in 1906, a great historical drama unfolded on the American frontier. The era of the Wild West was a century-long period characterized by ceaseless exploration, wagon trains straining westward, cattle drives, Indian wars, gunfights, wandering trappers and mountainmen, cowboys, rustlers, stagecoaches, and gold. What a century!;Among the many fascinating stories recounted in this book are: Meriwether Lewis's first-ever Indian fight; The desperate search during the Lewis and Clark expedition for a passageway through the Rocky Mountains before winter struck; Bespectacled Easterner Teddy Roosevelt's rude treatment in the Dakota Badlands in the 1880s; The high drama of the San Francisco Earthquake; Anecdotes that follow the construction of the transcontinental railroad; The western explorations of topographical engineer Stephen Long; The courageous army officer who held the Indians of the Southwest at bay during the Civil War; The criminal adventures of the Dalton Gang; The work of the explorer-botanist David Douglas; The story behind Boothill in Tombstone, Arizona; The legend of Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch; Little-known lawman Thomas J. Smith of Abilene
