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The Old West    (• = Interactive)
Battle of the Alamo
 "Remember the Alamo!," 1836
"At last they were all destroyed by grape, musket shot and the bayonet." A former Catholic mission is the site of a fight to the last man in the Texas War of Independence.

 Buffalo Hunt, 1846
In the days when the buffalo thronged the Plains.

 The Tragic Fate of the Donner Party, 1847
"Snowed hard until twelve o'clock last night; many uneasy for fear we shall all perish with hunger." A group of pioneers abandon their homes in the mid-West with high hopes of finding a better life in California: their dream is shattered by the early snow of the Sierra-Nevada Mountains.

 Vigilante Justice, 1851
"They granted him a respite of three hours to prepare for his sudden entrance into eternity." The Vigilance Committee of a California mining camp attempts to establish order in a lawless community.

 The California Gold Rush, 1849
A gold seeker describes his passage to the gold fields, digging for gold and life in camp.

 The Sack of Lawrence, Kansas, 1856
"The newspaper offices were the first objects of attack." Five years before the attack on Fort Sumter, the opening shots of the Civil War were fired in a small Kansas town.

 Pony Express Rider, 1861
"As I was leaving Horse Creek one day, a party of fifteen Indians 'jumped me' in a sand ravine about a mile west of the station." Ride along with a Pony Express rider.

 Riding The Stage, 1861
"Our coach was a swinging and swaying cage of the most sumptuous description." Mark Twain describes riding the overland stage.

 Crossing the Plains, 1865
Crossing the Plains Aboard a wagon train making the westward trek from Missouri to Montana

 Completing the Transcontinental Railroad, 1869
It was a milestone in American history, unifying the country and reducing the travel time from one coast to the other from months to days. According to this eyewitness, the celebration in the Utah desert was a blast.

 Shoot Out with Wild Bill Hickok, 1869
"Don't shoot him in the back; he is drunk." An eyewitness account of one of the exploits that made Wild Bill Hickok a legend.

 Battle With The Apache, 1872
A soldier's recollections of an attack on an Apache stronghold in Arizona Territory.

 Buffalo Bill Entertains a Russian Grand Duke, 1872
"He fired six shots from this weapon at buffaloes only twenty feet away. . . not one of his bullets took effect." Some of the stars of the Old West, including Buffalo Bill Cody, Colonel George Custer and General Philip Sheridan, introduce a son of the Russian Czar to the buffalo hunt.

 Encounter with the Texas Rangers, 1876
"'Drop that gun!' yelled McNelly. 'Drop it, I say, or I'll kill you.'" The Texas Rangers bring law and order to a lawless land.

 Captured by the Arapaho, 1875
"I and my two companions returned the fire over the backs of the mustangs and ponies which were used as a breastwork. . ." An intrepid traveler through the Old West finds more adventure than he anticipated.

Custer's Last Stand Custer's Last Stand, 1876
The destruction of Custer's command on the banks of the Little Bighorn.
 Traveling on an Emigrant Train, 1879
"There was a Babel of bewildered men, women, and children." Travel aboard a train filled with new immigrants to America as they make their way west.

 The Death Of Billy The Kid, 1881
Sheriff Pat Garrett describes the night he confronted Billy the Kid.

 A Cowboy in Dodge City, 1882
Texas cowboys in a wide open town.

 Ranchers and Farmers Collide in Nebraska, 1884
"The boys were having great fun at the expense of the settlers." Cowboys and Homesteaders fight over land.

 Massacre At Wounded Knee, 1890
The bloody confrontation that ended the Indian wars.

 The Dalton Gang's Last Raid, 1892
The story reads like a Hollywood script - but its all true.

 The Oklahoma Land Rush, 1893
"...the rifles snapped and the line broke with a huge, crackling roar." Thousands leave the starting line in America's largest land rush - and its last.

  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Rob a Train, 1899
Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and the "Wild Bunch" rob the Union Pacific.

  The Hanging of Tom Horn, 1903
"Would you like us to sing, Tom?" Tom Horn, a last vestige of home-spun law and order in the Old West is executed in Wyoming for the mistaken assassination of a fourteen-year-old boy.

 

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