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.
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
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
Index of Trail Blazers, Riders, & Cowboys
John Colter’s Escape From the Indians
Early Transportation on the Great Plains
Overland Stage in Hays, Kansas by Alexander Gardner, 1867.
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
Indians and Emigrants on the Overland Trails
A Journey to Denver via the Butterfield Overland Dispatch
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 Spanish Trail – Trading Between New Mexico and California
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
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
Sager Orphans on the Oregon Trail
Overland Trail
Overland Trail Across the American West
Pathways To the West – A 1918 Account
Pawnee Trail in Kansas
Pony Express – Fasted Mail Across the West
The Reign Of The Prairie Schooner
Santa Fe Trail – Highway to the Southwest
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 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
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
Also See:
List of Trail Blazers, Riders, & Cowboys