Excerpt from The Pathbreakers From River to Ocean: The Story of the Great West From the Time of Coronado to the Present Multitudes of books have been written for pupils of our schools recording the valiant deeds of the explorers who have made their field of operation east of the Mississippi. De Soto, Smith, Marquette, Clark, Boone and the many adventurous heroes who plied up and down all of the streams between the mighty river and the ocean to the East, have received, each in turn, due attention, and their deeds have not only been recorded upon the pages of books but written in the hearts of the American youths. The West, or that land situated between the Mississippi and the western coast, has not received its due attention in school book form. To enable the future citizens, particularly those who live in the states carved out of this story-making territory, to familiarize themselves with the brave deeds of these earliest inhabitants in an unsettled and unorganized territory is the purpose of this publica tion. No territory or period of history so abounds in heroic deeds, daring adventures, and hazardous enterprises which have directly served to bring about civilization as the region known as the Great West. The tale is not only interesting but fascinating from the earliest beginning to the present day. The turbulent streams, the rugged and forbidding mountains, the limitless plains, the hostile natives, and the extremes of climate made the struggle a hard one, and demanded men of courage who had faith in themselves and the object of their con quests. The wonderful story is too long to appear between the covers of any one book, yet the hope is expressed that the facts assembled may awaken a new interest in the labors of those untiring climbers of streams and mountains who made that undeveloped country a part of our present-day possessions. If this is accomplished the labor of preparing the book will be abundantly rewarded. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.