PREFACE
St. Louis had a memorable "flag day" a little more than a century ago. Within twenty-four hours the yellow and red flag of Spain was run down and the tricolor run up; this hauled down and the Stars and Stripes run up. The Louisiana Territory thus became a part of the United States. In a flash, the western boundary of this country was changed from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains.
Scarcely were the Stars and Stripes flying, before Lewis and Clark were on their way to explore the vast and mysterious Louisiana Territory—the West. Theirs was one of the most comprehensive and successful exploring expeditions on record—one of the greatest of outdoor expeditions. There were adventures and hardships, but after two years the party returned to civilization with the loss of only one man. The resources of the great West were definitely placed before the world.
This expedition revealed the extraordinary resourcefulness of Lewis and Clark and brought out also two other characters who are worthy of a place in American literature and whose achievements might well be a source of inspiration in American life. These are John Colter, who afterwards discovered the Yellowstone, and Sacagawea, the "bird woman." Sacagawea was the one woman of the Lewis and Clark expedition. She rendered remarkable service, and her name will be forever associated with exploration, with woodcraft, and with the National-Park wildernesses.
Just before the returning Lewis and Clark expedition reached St. Louis, it met trappers starting up the river—going into the great West. This was the real beginning of the trapping industry, which for nearly two generations was the dominating influence of the West.
The West was thoroughly explored by the trappers. In a number of States they formed the first permanent settlement. The trappers harvested the furs of lakes and streams throughout the mountains and built up the "Commerce of the Prairies." We are indebted to them for the Oregon and Santa Fé trails. All history shows no more picturesque or resourceful character than the trapper. Among them were such great men as John Colter, James Bridger, and Kit Carson.
The trapper was followed by the prospector. The trapper did not search for gold. The prospector did not look for furs or fertile lands. In a different way the prospector exploited the same territory as the trapper and thus placed the resources and the romance of the West before the public.
Closely following the trapper and prospector was that rugged and aggressive character, the cowboy. He had a definite part in the forward movement of the frontier. The cowboy cared nothing for furs, or gold, or fertile lands. He was interested in the rich grasses for his cattle. He, too, had his short day. These characters—the cowboy, the prospector, and the trapper—tarried for a brief moment on the frontier when the farmer, the first lasting settler, arrived. All these armed and vigorous people, the wearers of buckskin, were people of individuality and power. They made great changes throughout the West, and hastened its final development.
Pioneer men and women are among the great and influential figures in history. They were human, they were honorable, and we do honor them. They did not want or need sympathy. They were getting much, perhaps the most, from life; they were happy. We think of theirs as being a life of sacrifice, but it really was a life of selection. They were away from the crowd—from the enemies of sincerity and individuality. Of all people they were most nearly free. But the pioneers are gone.
The frontier no longer exists, and the days of the wilderness are gone forever. Yet, in our magnificent National Parks we still have a bit of the primeval world and the spirit of the vigorous frontier. In these wild parks we may rebuild the past, and in them the trapper, the prospector, the cowboy, and the pioneer may act once more their part in the scenes that knew them.