THE PIONEER WEST
Dr. Steele, president of the gulch, acted as judge.
FRONTISPIECE. See page 234.
THE PIONEER WEST
NARRATIVES OF THE WESTWARD
MARCH OF EMPIRE
SELECTED AND EDITED BY
JOSEPH LEWIS FRENCH
WITH A FOREWORD BY
HAMLIN GARLAND
ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR BY
REMINGTON SCHUYLER
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1924
Copyright, 1923,
By Little, Brown, and Company.
All rights reserved
Published October, 1923
Printed in the United States of America
VITAL PAGES IN AMERICAN HISTORY
The history of America is the story of trail-makers,pioneers in every sense of the word. Our forefathers hadtrails to make in new fields of government, of invention andin city building, but before all, smoothing the way for all,came the men and women who explored and ploughed andplanted the wilderness. Their story will grow in interestas the years pass. Their deeds have already taken on somethingof the dim quality of heroic myths. They form themost distinctive of our contributions to history and poetry.
Many of the most stark and stirring of these chroniclesof the border have passed out of print and are now inaccessibleeven to the painstaking student. It is from amongthese almost forgotten, yet vital records that Mr. Frenchhas selected the chapters of his book of narratives of thePioneer West. I am personally grateful to him for rescuingfor me several of these chronicles of which I hadheard but which I had not been able to read until they cameto me in this volume. I perceive in this collection anotherlink in the lengthening chain of our traditional story. TheGrea