Showing results by publisher "Books in Motion" in History & Culture

Prior to the Civil War, the fastest mail between the West Coast and the East took almost thirty days by stagecoach along a southern route through Texas. Some Californians feared their state would not remain in the Union, separated so far from the free states. Then businessman William Russell invested in a way to deliver mail between San Francisco and the farthest western railroad, in Saint Joseph, Missouri - across two thousand miles of mountains, deserts, and plains - guaranteed in ten days or less.

Trapper's treasure! The high point of any trapper's year was the summer rendezvous, the annual gathering where mountain men from all over the frontier met to trade the pelts they had risked their lives for. But for Kit Carson, the real danger lay in getting to the rendezvous. He was leading a party of trappers, all of them weighed down with a year's worth of furs. That was enough to make them a tempting target for any killer on the trail - especially when the trail led through Blackfoot territory.