Even among iconic frontiersmen like John C. FrEmont, Kit Carson, and Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger stands out. A mountain man of the American West, straddling the fur trade era and the age of exploration, he lived the life legends are made of. His adventures are fit for remaking into the tall tales Bridger himself liked to tell. Here, in a biography ......
Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra and the Nootka Sound Controversy
In 1792, Spanish naval officer and explorer Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra sailed from San Blas, Mexico, to Nootka Sound, on the west coast of present-day Vancouver Island. For nearly three years, he had been immersed in the aftermath of the Nootka Crisis of 1789, a dispute between Britain and Spain over sovereignty in the North Pacific. ......
More Than 60 Rail Trails in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho
Fully updated and revised, this is your comprehensive guide to walking, jogging, biking and cross country skiing the rail trail systems in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.
Eleven-year-old Fish Rawlings has always wanted to be a cowboy. Now, in the spring of 1868, he has his chance. His uncle is driving a cattle herd across Texas, and Fish is going with him as far as Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River. Little does Fish know that he is saddling up for the wildest rides of his life. With his cousin Gid, Fish is ......
The Big Bend of Texas is a mysterious place in 1869. Legend has it that there's a lost gold mine in the Chisos Mountains. Twelve-year-old Fish Rawlings and his cousin Gid have heard all about it. But when they discover a dying Indian in the desert, they have reason to believe it. Suddenly the boys find themselves with a great secret. No one ......
Before the drought of the early twenty-first century, the dry benchmark in the American plains was the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. But in this eye-opening work, Kevin Z. Sweeney reveals that the Dust Bowl was only one cycle in a series of droughts on the U.S. southern plains. Reinterpreting our nation's nineteenth-century history through ......
Best Lake Hikes Colorado includes detailed hike descriptions, maps, and color photos for approximately 100 of the most scenic lake hikes in the area. Hike descriptions also include history, local trivia, and GPS coordinates. Best Lake Hikes Colorado will take you through state and national parks, forests, monuments and wilderness areas, and from ......
The short, bloody career of "Bronco Bill" Walters and his gang captures the devil-may-care violence of the Wild West. In this detailed narrative of the gang's crime spree in territorial New Mexico and Arizona, two experts in outlaw history offer a gunshot-by-gunshot account of how some especially dangerous outlaws plied their trade in 1898. ......
Polygamy, Kinship, and Wealth in Wyoming's Bighorn Basin
More than three hundred Latter-day Saint settlements were founded by LDS Church President Brigham Young. Colonization-often outside of Utah-continued under the next three LDS Church presidents, fueled by Utah's overpopulation relative to its arable, productive land. In this book, John Gary Maxwell takes a detailed look at the Bighorn Basin ......