The American West
The American West has always held a powerful place in the nation’s imagination—a sweeping, untamed landscape shaped by ambition, struggle and the promise of opportunity. From the diverse Indigenous nations who first called it home to the settlers, outlaws and industrialists who transformed its terrain, the West exists as both a real place and a powerful myth. Its history is a tapestry of resilience and injustice, bold innovation and profound upheaval.
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In 1804, Lewis and Clark set off on a journey filled with harrowing confrontations, harsh weather and fateful decisions.
They've had to fight continually to maintain their way of life.
The country, from its commerce to the environment to even its concept of time, was profoundly altered after the completion of the railroad's 1,776 miles of track.
Yellowstone's stunning natural beauty inspired the 19th-century push to set aside the land, where Indigenous people had been present for millennia.
Migrants Travel West on the Oregon Trail
Migrants Travel West on the Oregon Trail
Over 400,000 people travel West to start a new life and claim new land along the Oregon Trail, including Lucinda Brown. One-hundred seventy years later, one of her descendants sees a kettle from her journey for the first time.
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The Mexican-American War was a 1846-1848 conflict over vast territories in the American West, which the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave to the United States.
The Trail of Tears was the deadly journey Native Americans were forced to undergo after being removed from their ancestral lands.
Westward expansion began with the Louisiana Purchase and was fueled by the Gold Rush, the Oregon Trail and a belief in "manifest destiny."
Chief John Ross devoted much of his life to fighting against the forced removal of his people from their ancestral lands.
Yellowstone's stunning natural beauty inspired the 19th-century push to set aside the land, where Indigenous people had been present for millennia.
New studies combined archaeological data with oral history to figure out why everyone left.
Spies and scouts, mothers and homestead keepers, women quietly made their mark on America's changing western frontier.
Missionaries laid the foundation for communities and governance in the American frontier.
Check out nine surprising facts about the route that once served as the gateway to the American West.
The pioneers hoped to shave 300 miles off their journey. But the route they took to California had never been tested.
