In the 1850s, the U.S government began encouraging Americans to head west to claim some of the country’s vas open areas. Pioneers were lured with the promise of owning their own land. But the trip could take months—if they survived it at all. Horse-drawn wagons were constantly at risk of breaking down in parched deserts, on barren plains, or in treacherous mountain passes. “Nothing but actual experience will give one an idea of the . . . exhaustive energy, the throbs of hope, the depths of despair, through which we lived,” on pioneer wrote.
