It Happened in the Old West: Remarkable Events that Shaped History

by Erin H. Turner (editor)

These are the stories of what happened in the West as the trickle then flood of Easterners and immigrants first began to flow into the plains, deserts, and mountains between the Pacific Ocean and the Mississippi River and, finally, far north into The Last Frontier. While some events would have happened regardless who was there—earthquakes, storms, droughts, and other natural disasters—it was because of this influx of humanity that those events were recorded and have become part of America’s history.

Amid tales of loss and horror are accounts of survival and success. And among the countless adventurers who found the lure of wide open spaces and untapped resources to be as strong as the Sirens’ song to Odysseus, many found the determination to thrive in the West. And thrive they did—even better, for what they lacked in resources they made up in resourcefulness, becoming inventors, entrepreneurs, scientists, activists, explorers and more.

273 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 1, 2017

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A super quick read. This was a really interesting book detailing things that happened from as far west as Alaska to as far east as the Mississippi. Settlement of Hawaii is not discussed. Pretty much every state west of the Missouri is given some form of consideration with a tale or two. Although several of the stories I was already familiar with such as the Oatman girls, the New Madrid earthquakes, the orphan trains and others, it was interesting to read of many more places and people I had not heard about before. The book is broken down into places or happenings making the short stories easy to digest and if you want to skip around you can. Books like this I always enjoy because they sometimes open up a window into something I'd never heard of before and want to read in more depth at a different time. If you like the west or history you should check this book out.