I have told here the story of the last frontier within the United States, trying at once to preserve the picturesque atmosphere which has given to the "Far West" a definite and well-understood meaning, and to indicate those forces which have shaped the history of the country beyond the Mississippi. In doing it I have had to rely largely upon my own investigations among sources little used and relatively inaccessible. The exact citations of authority, with which I might have crowded my pages, would have been out of place in a book not primarily intended for the use of scholars. But I hope, before many years, to exploit in a larger and more elaborate form the mass of detailed information upon which this sketch is based.
My greatest debts are to the owners of the originals from which the illustrations for this book have been made; to Claude H. Van Tyne, who has repeatedly aided me with his friendly criticism; and to my wife, whose careful readings have saved me from many blunders in my text.
FREDERIC L. PAXSON.
Ann Arbor, August 7, 1909.
[CONTENTS]
| [CHAPTER I] | |
| PAGE | |
| The Westward Movement | [1] |
| [CHAPTER II] | |
| The Indian Frontier | [14] |
| [CHAPTER III] | |
| Iowa and the New Northwest | [33] |
| [CHAPTER IV] | |
| The Santa Fé Trail | [53] |
| [CHAPTER V] | |
| The Oregon Trail | [70] |
| [CHAPTER VI] | |
| Overland with the Mormons | [86] |
| [CHAPTER VII] | |
| California and the Forty-niners | [104] |
| [CHAPTER VIII] | |
| Kansas and the Indian Frontier | [119] |
| [CHAPTER IX] | |
| "Pike's Peak or Bust!" | [138] |
| [CHAPTER X] | |
| From Arizona to Montana | [156] |
| [CHAPTER XI] | |
| The Overland Mail | [174] |
| [CHAPTER XII] | |
| The Engineers' Frontier | [192] |
| [CHAPTER XIII] | |
| The Union Pacific Railroad | [211] |
| [CHAPTER XIV] | |
| The Plains in the Civil War | [225] |
| [CHAPTER XV] | |
| The Cheyenne War | [243] |
| [CHAPTER XVI] | |
| The Sioux War | [264] |
| [CHAPTER XVII] | |
| The Peace Commission and the Open Way | [284] |
| [CHAPTER XVIII] | |
| Black Kettle's Last Raid | [304] |
| [CHAPTER XIX] | |
| The First of the Railways | [324] |
| [CHAPTER XX] | |
| The New Indian Policy | [340] |
| [CHAPTER XXI] | |
| The Last Stand: Chief Joseph and Sitting Bull | [358] |
| [CHAPTER XXII] | |
| Letting in the Population | [372] |
| [CHAPTER XXIII] | |
| Bibliographical Note | [387] |