An acclaimed historian’s “compellingly told” year-by-year account of the pioneering efforts to conquer the American West in the mid-nineteenth century (The Guardian). In all the sagas of human migration, few can top the drama of the journey by Midwestern farmers to Oregon and California from 1840 to 1849—between the era of the fur trappers and the beginning of the gold rush. Even with mountain men as guides, these pioneers literally plunged into the unknown, braving all manner of danger, including hunger, thirst, disease, and drowning. Employing numerous illustrations and extensive primary sources, including original diaries and memoirs, McLynn underscores the incredible heroism and dangerous folly on the overland trails. His authoritative narrative investigates the events leading up to the opening of the trails, the wagons and animals used, the roles of women, relations with Native Americans, and much else. The climax arrives in McLynn’s expertly re-created tale of the dreadful Donner party, and he closes with Brigham Young and the Mormons beginning communities of their own. Full of high drama, tragedy, and triumph, “rarely has a book so wonderfully brought to life the riveting tales of Americans’ trek to the Pacific” (Publishers Weekly).

Two families break up their homes and travel from the east by wagon train across the open prairie to build a ranch in the wild open undeveloped range land not far from the mountains in western Montana. The long trip is tiresome uneventful travel at times with unexpected dangers along the way. When tragedy strikes, they trust God to give them strength and guidance to continue. There is a stallion who is tamed by the young women and is a help in many ways. The horses become vital in use and survival in the new life in the far land out west. The young women, wanting to learn to be ranchers are challenged by many tasks on the trip and in the new country. Things they have to learn and develop skills in order to survive. Will they survive and become the ranchers that they want to be? Bold men come to their assistance and love comes in the new life.

This is a story about how it might have been in 1877 when Charles Maybee moved his family from Kansas to Oregon. It is based a note passed down through the family from his oldest son. Supporting characters, events and personal interactions are fictional. But tracing the route that Charles took, and knowing the hazards he faced in those days before automobiles existed, is like being there with him. Charles is tired of scraping out a living in Kansas and believes a homestead in Oregon's fertile Willamette Valley is the way to a better life. But his wife, Mary Jane, refuses to go. It would mean traveling by covered wagon for six months. They have four small children and a fifth is on the way. The rift between her and Charles takes months to mend, but she finally relents and in the spring of 1877, when their new baby is just six months old, they begin the 2,000-mile journey in the company of two neighboring families. Life on the trail is demanding and painfully difficult, but Charles leads their party with unwavering resolve. In northeast Kansas, near the Big Blue River, they join a party from Missouri led by Jack Jarrett. Continuing as a seven-wagon caravan, they cross the harsh plains of Nebraska. After surviving a fierce storm that threatens their lives and scatters their livestock, they travel through the towering bluffs of western Nebraska into Wyoming Territory, and over the Rocky Mountains. Continuing through rugged Idaho Territory, they enter the promised land of Oregon. Still, they face a daunting passage through the Blue Mountains and around Mt. Hood before reaching Oregon City, the end of the Oregon Trail. Charles then faces the final challenge finding a place to settle and begin a new life.

Wagon train going to Coulter city battling the Sioux and, of course, outlaws. This is a dandy of a western.

James Stewart once said, "For John Ford, there was no need for dialogue. The music said it all." This lively, accessible study is the first comprehensive analysis of Ford's use of music in his iconic westerns. Encompassing a variety of critical approaches and incorporating original archival research, Kathryn Kalinak explores the director's oft-noted predilection for American folk song, hymnody, and period music. What she finds is that Ford used music as more than a stylistic gesture. In fascinating discussions of Ford's westerns—from silent-era features such as Straight Shooting and The Iron Horse to classics of the sound era such as My Darling Clementine and The Searchers —Kalinak describes how the director exploited music, and especially song, in defining the geographical and ideological space of the American West.

This publication will fill a gap in the bibliographic reference shelf by identifying historical novels for both adult and young adult readers. ^IAmerican Historical Fiction^R contains over 3,000 titles set in states and historical regions of the United States. Entries are organized by time period. The newest titles, as well as old favorites, are covered. The volume is indexed by author, title, genre, subject, and geographic setting.

Music in the Western: Notes from the Frontier presents essays from both film studies scholars and musicologists on core issues in western film scores: their history, their generic conventions, their operation as part of a narrative system, their functioning within individual filmic texts and their ideological import, especially in terms of the western’s construction of gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity. The Hollywood western is marked as uniquely American by its geographic setting, prototypical male protagonist and core American values. Music in the Western examines these conventions and the scores that have shaped them. But the western also had a resounding international impact, from Europe to Asia, and this volume distinguishes itself by its careful consideration of music in non-Hollywood westerns, such as Ravenous and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and in the “easterns” which influenced them, such as Yojimbo. Other films discussed include Wagon Master, High Noon, Calamity Jane, The Big Country, The Unforgiven, Dead Man, Wild Bill, There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men. Contributors Ross Care Corey K. Creekmur Yuna de Lannoy K. J. Donnelly Caryl Flinn Claudia Gorbman Kathryn Kalinak Charles Leinberger Matthew McDonald Peter Stanfield Mariana Whitmer Ben Winters The Routledge Music and Screen Media Series offers edited collections of original essays on music in particular genres of cinema, television, video games and new media. These edited essay collections are written for an interdisciplinary audience of students and scholars of music and film and media studies.

Keeping track of prolific authors who write fiction series was quite challenging for even the most ardent fan until To Be Continueddebuted in 1995. Noew, readers will be happy that the soon-to-be-released second edition has added 1,600 new books and 400 new series. To Be Continued, Second Edition, maintians the first volume's successful formula that featured concise A-to-Z entries packed with useful information, including titles, publishers, publication dates, genre categories, annotations, and subject terms. Among the genre categories that can be found in To Be Continued are romance, science fiction, crime novel, horror, adventure, fantasy, humor, western, war, Christian fiction, and others.

This updated edition of Native Seattle brings the indigenous story to the present day and puts the movement of recognizing Seattle's Native past into a broader context. Native Seattle focuses on the experiences of local indigenous communities on whose land Seattle grew, accounts of Native migrants to the city and the development of a multi-tribal urban community, as well as the role Native Americans have played in the narrative of Seattle.

This book is for those in search of fun! Cowboy up ... at an authentic dude ranch; Horse pack with your spouse in Montana's rugged Bitterroot Wilderness; Bicycle through the beautiful vineyards of Napa Valley, Italy, or France; Drive a covered wagon pulled by a team of horses through the Teton wilderness of Wyoming; Plunge down the majestic Grand Canyon's Lava Falls ... the world's biggest whitewater; Feel the exhilaration, kayaking among Orcas on Alaska's Inside Passage or paddling the myriad of islands in the crystal clear waters of the Belize. Features 700 recreation providers.