Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 45699-h.htm or 45699-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45699/45699-h/45699-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45699/45699-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/fronlastamerican00paxsrich THE LAST AMERICAN FRONTIER Stories from American History * * * * * * [Illustration] THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO * * * * * * [Illustration] THE LAST AMERICAN FRONTIER by FREDERIC LOGAN PAXSON Junior Professor of American History in the University of Michigan Illustrated New York The Macmillan Company 1910 All rights reserved Copyright, 1910, By the Macmillan Company. Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1910. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. PREFACE I have told here the story of the last frontier within the United States, trying at once to preserve the picturesque atmosphere which has given to the "Far West" a definite and well-understood meaning, and to indicate those forces which have shaped the history of the country beyond the Mississippi. In doing it I have had to rely largely upon my own investigations among sources little used and relatively inaccessible. The exact citations of authority, with which I might have crowded my pages, would have been out of place in a book not primarily intended for the use of scholars. But I hope, before many years, to exploit in a larger and more elaborate form the mass of detailed information upon which this sketch is based. My greatest debts are to the owners of the originals from which the illustrations for this book have been made; to Claude H. Van Tyne, who has repeatedly aided me with his friendly criticism; and to my wife, whose careful readings have saved me from many blunders in my text. FREDERIC L. PAXSON. ANN ARBOR, August 7, 1909. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 1 CHAPTER II THE INDIAN FRONTIER 14 CHAPTER III IOWA AND THE NEW NORTHWEST 33 CHAPTER IV THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL 53 CHAPTER V THE OREGON TRAIL 70 CHAPTER VI OVERLAND WITH THE MORMONS 86 CHAPTER VII CALIFORNIA AND THE FORTY-NINERS 104 CHAPTER VIII