Tales & Trails of the American Frontier

Wagon Train

Wagon Train

Adventures and Tragedies on the Overland Trail

Beale’s Wagon Road From New Mexico to California

Pony Express Statue in Sacramento, California, by Carol Highsmith.

Pony Express Statue in Sacramento, California, by Carol Highsmith.

Beginning of Settlement in the American West

Bidwell-Bartleson Party – Blazing the California Trail

The Bozeman Trail – A Violent Path to the Gold Fields

Adventures on the Bozeman Trail

Butterfield’s Overland Mail Company

The California Trail – Rush to Gold

Camel Caravans of the American Deserts

The Cattle Trails by Emerson Hough

Cattle Trails of the Prairie by Charles Harger

Cherokee Trail – Alternate Route to the West

The Cherokee Trail of Tears

Cattle Trail

Cattle Trail

The Chisholm Trail – Herding the Cattle

Jesse Chisholm – Blazing a Trail

Corps of Discovery – The Lewis & Clark Expedition

Disease and Death on the Overland Trails

Donner Party Tragedy

Index of Trail Blazers, Riders, & Cowboys

John Colter’s Escape From the Indians

Lobo, King of the Corrumpa

Early Trails of Colorado

Early Transportation on the Great Plains

El Camino Real de los Tejas

Fayetteville Emigrant Trail

Overland Stage in Hays, Kansas by Alexander Gardner, 1867.

Overland Stage in Hays, Kansas by Alexander Gardner, 1867.

Frontier Trails of Kansas

The Goodnight-Loving Trail

Charles Goodnight – Blazing the Cattle Trails

Oliver Loving – Pioneer Cowboy

Loving’s Bend – A 1910 Account

Granada-Fort Union Military Road

The Great Wagon Road of the East

The Great Western Cattle Trail

Illinois to the California Goldfields in ’49

A wagon train and Indians

A wagon train and Indians

Indians and Emigrants on the Overland Trails

A Journey to Denver via the Butterfield Overland Dispatch

Kaw Trail in Kansas

Mormon Trail

Mormon Handcart Tragedy of 1856

Natchez Trace – Traveled For Thousands of Years

Legends and Mysteries of the Natchez Trace

The National Road – First Highway in America

Old Mine Road in New Jersey

Old Spanish Trail – Trading Between New Mexico and California

Oregon Trail pioneers pass through the sand hills, painting by William Henry Jackson

Oregon Trail pioneers pass through the sandhills, painting by William Henry Jackson

Oregon Trail – Pathway to the West

Crime and Punishment on the Overland Trails

Danger and Hardship on the Oregon Trail

Eye Witness Accounts

Historic Sites on the Oregon Trail

Jeffrey-Goodale Cutoff on the Oregon Trail

Hall Jackson Kelley – Promoting the Oregon Trail

A Ghost Story on the Oregon Trail

Oregon-California Trail Timeline

Oregon-California Trail Facts

Sager Orphans on the Oregon Trail

Utter-Van Ornum Massacre

OverlandTrail

Overland Trail

Overland Trail Across the American West

Overland Trails of Nebraska

Pathways To the West – A 1918 Account

Pawnee Trail in Kansas

Pony Express – Fasted Mail Across the West

The Reign Of The Prairie Schooner

Route 66 – The Mother Road

San Antonio-El Paso Road

Santa Fe Trail – Highway to the Southwest

Indian Attacks at Pawnee Rock

Lucien Maxwell by a Santa Fe Trail Driver

My Friend, Kit Carson, by a Santa Fe Trail Driver

The Santa Fe Trail ends in Santa Fe, New Mexico

The Santa Fe Trail ends in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Nine Mile Ridge Massacre

Tales of the Santa Fe Trail

The Shawnee Trail – Driving Longhorns to Missouri

Smoky Hill Trail – Heading for Gold

Stagecoaches of the American West

Struggle For Possession of the West – The First Emigrants

Tales of the Shotgun-Messenger Service

Trading Posts and Their Stories

Trading Posts of the Fur Trade

Trails Across Pennsylvania

Trail History in Kansas

Trappers’ Trail of Colorado and Wyoming

War on the Oregon & California Trails

Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny

The Wilderness Road Opens Kentucky

Women on the Move: Overland Journeys to California

The Old Chisholm Trail

Well come along boys and listen to my tale,

I’ll tell you my troubles on the old Chisholm Trail.

On a ten dollar horse and a forty dollar saddle,

I started out to punchin’ then longhorn cattle.

I started up the trail October twenty-third,

I started up the trail with the 2U herd.

I’m up in the morning before daylight,

And before I sleep the moon shines bright.

It’s bacon and beans most every day,

We’ll soon be a-eatin’ prairie hay.

With my seat in the saddle and my hand on the horn,

I’m the best damned cowboy that ever was born.

It’s cloudy in the west and a-lookin’ like rain,

And my damned old slicker’s in the wagon again.

– A favorite song of the old time cowboys.

©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated April 2023.

Oregon Trail Ruts at Rock Creek, Nebraska

Oregon Trail Ruts at Rock Creek, Nebraska

Also See:

The American Cowboy

The Cattle Kings

List of Trail Blazers, Riders, & Cowboys

Cowboys on the American Frontier

The Range of the American West