This was the indispensable handbook for American pioneers traveling west in the mid 19th century. Commissioned and published by the U.S. government and written in a straightforward and helpful voice by U.S. Army officer Randolph Barnes Marcy (1812-1887), it offers all the useful and necessary advice overland travelers to the far West needed to ensure a safe journey: the different routes to California and Oregon, how to pack a wagon for the journey,...

Roughing It is a book of semi-autobiographical travel literature written by American humorist Mark Twain. It was written during 1870-71 and published in 1872 as a prequel to his first book Innocents Abroad. This book tells of Twain's adventures prior to his pleasure cruise related in Innocents Abroad. Roughing It follows the travels of young Mark Twain through the Wild West during the years 1861-1867. After a brief stint as a Confederate cavalry militiaman...

John Gregory Bourke served General George Crook for fifteen years and was his right-hand man. This work is an account of his time with the legendary US Army officer in the post-Civil War West. A written recollection of Crook's campaigns during the American Indian Wars. Bourke makes the American frontier jump off the page with his description. He also included sketches not only of Crook and his fellow cavalrymen but also of legendary Native American...

John Shefford had found a new life with Fay Larkin. When she was charged with murder, the easy part was breaking her out of jail. After that he had the posse to worry about, violent bands of Indians, a murderous trek across a trackless waste, and a brutal passage through white water hell.

"A border town like Casita is no place for a drifter - especially a rich man's son looking for adventure. From the moment Dick Gale steps into this stinking, sun-baked hellhole of gambling and corruption, revolution, and revenge, he gets more than a bargained for. His old friend Thorne is in love with a beautiful senorita who's been targeted by the Mexican rebel Rojas. A bold, sneering devil of a man, feared, envied, and idolized by his people, Rojas...

"A Texas Cowboy" was one of the first true looks into life as a cowboy. Its author, Charles A. Siringo, was born in Dodge City, Kansas and at the age of 15 started working on local ranches as a cowboy and participated over the course of his ranching career in many cattle drives. A highly influential work that romanticized the life of a cowboy and the Old West, Siringo's book tells an autobiographical account of riding the famous Chisholm Trail and...

Fascinating narrative as the result of years of loving participation in hunt, in Indian fighting, and in nature studies.