Frank McLynn has penned a year-by-year account of the pioneering efforts to conquer and settle the American West. Wagons West is a stirring history of the years from 1840 to 1849 - between the era of the fur trappers and the beginning of the gold rush. In all the sagas of human migration, few can top the drama of the journey by Midwestern farmers to Oregon and California. Although they used mountain men as guides, they went almost literally into the...

Examines the exploration and migration of trappers, missionaries, and explorers west of the Mississippi after the Louisiana Purchase and the expedition of Lewis and Clark.

Discusses some of the explorers and trappers who journeyed west to hunt and trade beaver pelts and other commodities during the early nineteenth century.

A light-hearted look at some of the difficulties faced by the pioneers who traveled by wagon train across the United States to settle in the West.

Josefina and her sisters are excited when energetic young Aunt Dolores arrives at the rancho, bringing new ideas, new fashions, and new challenges, but they worry the changes will make them forget Mam?a, especially as Christmas approaches.

TO THE RIVER’S END Luke Ransom was just eighteen years old when he answered an ad in a St. Louis newspaper that would change his life forever. The American Fur Company needed one-hundred enterprising men to travel up the Missouri River—the longest in North America—all the way to its source. They would hunt and trap furs for one, two, or three years. Along the way, they would face unimaginable hardships: grueling weather, wild animals, hunger,...

In 1826, strange occurrences on eleven-year-old Josefina's New Mexican "rancho" lead the young healer to wonder if old legends of lost treasure and the wandering ghost called La Llorona may be true. Includes a Spanish glossary and historical background information.