Eyewitness to the Old West

Firsthand Accounts of Exploration, Adventure, and Peril

Richard Scott

• Publisher: Roberts Rinehart
• Year: 2004
• eBook ISBN: 9781461635376
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

A collection of over 150 vignettes from the journals and diaries of people who lived or traveled in the Old West, these accounts begin with the sixteenth-century collisions between the Spaniards and the Indians and conclude with Black Elk's mournful description of the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890. Storytellers include explorers, missionaries, India leaders, a poet, an artist, and a future president.

Table of contents

• Illustrations
• Preface
• Foreword
• Living among the Indians, c. 1531
• Coronado Makes an Impression, c. December 1540
• Explorers Draw Blood, July 27, 1806
• The Pawnees Choose a Flag, September 29, 1806
• Living Off of Paradise, c. April 1810
• Encounter with Indians, May 10, 1810
• Rambling through an Indian Village, June 13, 1811
• “I Heard My Skull Brake,” November 13, 1821
• An Artist’s Description of a Sioux Home, c. Summer 1832
• “Creasing” a Wild Horse, c. 1832
• The Effect of a Meteor Shower on the Crows, c. October 1832
• Suffering in a “Desolate Wilderness,” c. February 1833
• A Grave for a Trapper, c. September 1833
• The Power of a Pawnee Bow, May 22, 1834
• Getting Acquainted with a Grizzly, August 20, 1834
• Why She Ran Away, June 10, 1835
• A Buffalo Dance, July 29, 1835
• Surrounded at the Alamo, February 23, 1836
• Captured by Comanches, April 4, 1836
• Christmas Frolicking at Fort Union, c. 1838
• The Yearly Rendezvous, c. July 1839
• Walks-Galloping-On Falls from Grace, c. 1840
• A Flood’s Aftermath, c. Summer 1846
• Birthing at Bent’s Fort July 31, 1846
• We’re Taking Your Country, August 15, 1846
• A Funeral in Santa Fé, c. August 1846
• The Power of the Black-Robes, September 12, 1846
• Night Sounds of an Oglala Village, c. 1846
• A Blizzard in South Park, c. Winter 1847
• “You Don’t [K]now What Trubel Is Yet,” May 16, 1847
• Hanging Mexican Murderers, c. Spring 1847
• A Scout’s Experience Saves Lives, c. June 1848
• The Painted Ladies of Santa Fé, c. Summer 1848
• Southwestern Mirages, September 1, 1848
• The Disaster of Frémont’s Fourth Expedition, February 10, 1849
• Being Apprehensive around Apache Warriors, c. February 1849
• Unexpected Party Guests, July 4, 1849
• A Gift for a Gift, c. Summer 1849
• Inability to Save Mrs. White, c. October 1849
• Business Dealings in San Francisco, c. January 1850
• Justifying Stealing a Gold Claim, c. January 1850
• Captive Girls Brought into an Indian Village, March 21, 1851
• Fighting Comanches on the Santa Fé Trail May 21, 1853
• Attending a Fandango, September 29, 1853
• A Bride’s Possessions, c. May 1854
• “Day and Night Cannot Dwell Together,” c. December 1854
• Wanting to Minister to Another Woman, August 31, 1855
• Wilderness First-Aid, c. 1855
• Report on the Mormon Handcart Company, November 2, 1856
• Provisions for Crossing the Plains, c. 1859
• Overland by Stagecoach, October 10, 1858
• Scalping Comanche Warriors, c. 1859
• Burial at Mountain Meadows, May 6, 1859
• A New Home at Gold Hill, c. July 1860
• A Mysterious Corpse, c. 1860
• Suspicious Shooting of an Officer, c. October 1860
• Dissolution of a Partnership, c. Winter 1860
• The Longest Pony Express Ride, c. May 1861
• “Everything Went Off Quietly,” December 24, 1862
• Beans, Anyone? c. 1863
• The Greatest of Wrongs, c. 1863
• Inflation Comes to the Frontier, c. May 1863
• The Vigilante Committee Takes Care of Slade, c. January 1864
• Hand-to-Hand Fighting an Apache Brave, c. August 1864
• Life Is Cheap on the Yellowstone, October 1, 1864
• Testimony on the Sand Creek Massacre, March 14, 1865
• Assault on a Prairie Dog Town, c. Fall 1866
• A Cowboy Wedding, Winter 1866
• The Problem with Disobeying Orders, December 21, 1866
• The Battle Scene of the Fetterman Massacre, December 22, 1866
• Martial Law on the Plains, June 16, 1867
• The Wagon Box Fight, August 1, 1867
• Diary of a Horse Trader, c. 1867
• Letter to a Bereaved Father, August 23, 1867
• The Fight at Beecher Island, September 17, 1868
• Why I Don’t Mingle in Society, September 22, 1868
• Just Desserts for a Mule, c. 1868
• The Death of Innocents, c. November 1868
• A Rose among Thorns, c. November 1868
• The Golden Spike Is Driven, May 10, 1869
• Paying Attention to a Good Pony, c. 1869
• Floating the Grand Canyon, August 14, 1869
• Being Fast on the Draw, c. January 1870
• A Frontier House Beautiful, April 11, 1871
• Concerns of an Officer’s Wife, c. Autumn 1872
• Exchanging Courtesies, c. Autumn 1872
• A Visit to Denver, c. October 1873
• Double Perils of Frontier Women, c. 1873
• A Buffalo Hunter Calculates His Earnings, c. 1874
• “Doctoring” in the Seventh Cavalry, July 21, 1874
• Capturing Wild Mustangs, c. September 1875
• Searching for “Stone Bones,” c. Autumn 1875
• The Fight on the Little Bighorn, June 25, 1876
• The Spoils of War, June 26, 1876
• The Murder of Wild Bill Hickok, August 2, 1876
• The Great Northfield Raid, September 7, 1876
• Two Hundred Shots in Four Minutes, c. October 1876
• A Walk before Breakfast, c. 1877
• The Death of Crazy Horse, c. September 1877
• “I Will Fight No More Forever,” October 5, 1877
• Geronimo Makes Demands, c. Spring 1878
• Girl-Stealing, c. Summer 1878
• Christmastime at Fort Dodge, December 24, 1878
• Enforcement of Civil Rights Laws, c. 1879
• A Navaho Grandmother’s Medicine, c. 1879
• Night Tranquility at Fort Elliott, c. 1879
• “Burro Punching” in the San Juans, c. 1879
• Racing with Silvertips, c. 1880
• An “Almost Hung” Cowboy Is Jittery, c. Summer 1880
• The Kid Died with His Boots Off, July 13, 1881
• Making Headlines at the O.K. Corral, October 26, 1881
• Celebrating Reaching Womanhood on the Run, c. April 1882
• The Killing of Jesse James, April 4, 1882
• Tales of Boots and the Wiles of Women, c. 1882
• The Hazards of Teaching on the Rio Peñasco, c. 1882
• The Death Sentence of Alfred Packer, April 13, 1883
• Finding a Small Indian Mummy, c. Summer 1884
• Advice to the Girls of Chillicothe, c. 1885
• Winter Weather, c. 1887
• Adios to the Coyote Kid, c. 1888
• Practicing with the Bow, c. May 1889
• A Priest Makes a Sick Call, c. April 1890
• The Death of Sitting Bull, December 16, 1890
• The End of a Dream, December 29, 1890
• Bibliography
• About the Author