Trail of the Wild West: Rediscovering the American Frontier Book

If ever an era truly deserved to be called a golden age, it was the half-century heyday of the American West: A gold strike heralded its birth, gold fever drove its explosive growth, and a final gold rush marked its passing. For fifty years, the frontier's golden promise sparked a spirit of adventure, individualism, and independence that shaped our country's vision of itself.

Its legendary heroes and hallowed sites echo in our imaginations -- Wyatt Earp and Wounded Knee, the Little Bighorn and Judge Roy Bean, the James gang and the Johnson County range war. Trail of the Wild West reveals the often-surprising truth behind all the familiar myths, but it does much more as well: In these pages, you'll also meet ordinary men and women whose private diaries and plainspoken letters offer vivid glimpses of an extraordinary time, all the more eloquent in their simplicity. And along with the evocative black-and-white archival photographs, you'll find a breathtaking panorama of full-color images by some of our finest photographers, who create a modern portrait of a landscape still as awe-inspiring as it was one hundred and fifty years ago.

When you open this lavish, fascinating book, you reopen a world that ended long ago but has lost none of its power to enthrall. It's truly a golden opportunity to revisit the glory days of vibrant young America -- and rediscover the Wild West as it really was.