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Pioneers and Frontier America
Pioneers & the Frontier
The lines that separated inhabited lands from the Western Frontier were constantly being redrawn as new territories were being settled. This collection of pioneer resources sheds some light on what it took to forge ahead and claim new lands as well as the results. 
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone was hired by a land speculator to forge a road to Kentucky settlement. This dramatized version of Boones' life stars George O'Brien and John Carradine.
Mountain Men of Utah 
A short reenactment of an 1825 gathering of mountain men Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridges, and others in the land that would become Utah.
Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer
Daniel Boone leads settlers into Kentucky, but must battle Shawnee Indians who have been persuaded by a French renegade that Boone and the settlers are there to kill them and steal their land.
Kentucky Pioneers
Early pioneer families travel through the wilderness to Kentucky at the end of the Revolutionary War. As they reach their destination, they carve out a new life.
Lewis and Clark
A brief overview of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Lewis and Clark
In 1803, Thomas Jefferson commissioned Merriwether Lewis and William Clark
to find a water route from the east to the west coast of North America which they undertook beginning on May 14, 1804.
Trail of Tragedy: Donner Party Site Excavation
For many years a plaque has marked the spot where the donner party presumably spent their tragic winter of 1846-47 trapped by the heavy snows of the Sierra Nevada. The Tahoe National Forest working with...
The Great American West
From the Louisana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition, this wonderfully photographed movie spans the evolution of the American west and is based on diaries and letters of the times.
Erie Canal
This history of the Eric Canal from 1957 includes remains and remnants of the original system which was a pioneer route to the West.
The Cumberland Gap
This film explores the geography and history of the Cumberland Gap and covers its role in opening the West to settlement and its time during the Civil War.
American Pioneer
An old-styled telling of the pioneer life - wagon trains, indian attacks, and battling the elements.
The Invaders
This is a short, silent film about a broken treaty between Native American tribes and the United States as the railroads moved in.
Flatboatmen of the Frontier
In the 1800s, Ohio Valley farmers build flatboats to carry their produce and wares down river to market. These are the kind of flatboats driven by Abraham Lincoln.
Allegheny Portage Railroad
The history of the Allegheny Portage Railroad in the westward movement of settlers and commerce in central Pennsylvania in the mid-1800's.
Pioneers of the Plains
A pioneer family heads west from Illinois to the Midwestern plains.
National Bison Range
The history and preservation of bison in North America.
Cataloochee - Center of the World
This is a fantastic snapshot of changing life in the Smoky Mountains in the Cataloochee settlement from the 1800s to the begining of the 1900s.
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