The broad theme of this program is the nineteenth-century westward expansion that encapsulated the American spirit in venturing into the wilderness. By wilderness, the program implies not only the forces of nature, but the human inhabitants that the pioneers encountered.
The great gateway to the West was the Cumberland Gap that was formed when a meteor crashed into the Appalachian Mountains, opening a passageway to the west from the Atlantic seaboard. The spirit of "freedom" in defying the British Proclamation Line and venturing through the gap is embodied in the figure of Daniel Boone. Boone's oldest son James was tortured to death by the Shawnee Indians, yet Boone remained undaunted in his quest. Donald J. Trump appears as a commentator to stress the importance of perseverance in the American character.
If Boone paved the way for settlement, Lewis and Clark charted the territory purchased by Thomas Jefferson from Napoleon. The Corps of Discovery team brought back 300 examples of different species of wildlife. Sacagawea helped the group to survive the ordeal of the Rockies.
A devout Christian, Jedediah Smith is the greatest of the trappers. Mauled by a grizzly bear, Smith recovered to continue with his hunting adventures.
In June 1846, George and Tamsen Donner set off on their journey west. George wanted to take a "short cut," but it turned out that he was given inaccurate information. When the group was delayed with an extra one hundred miles and a broken axle, winter came with a sudden and early vengeance to the Sierra Nevadas, resulting in cannibalism for the Donner Party.
The 1830 Trail of Tears was the forced relocation of Native Americans under the Jackson administration. Even the young private John S. Burnett recorded his impressions of sorrow for the tribe members forced to leave their homes sent on a march of a thousand miles.
Young Abe Lincoln embodies the spirit of the settler in the Midwest. Traveling by riverboat down the Mississippi, young Abe observes the wave of the future in steamboat travel that will turn the Midwest into a new economic powerhouse.
The great gateway to the West was the Cumberland Gap that was formed when a meteor crashed into the Appalachian Mountains, opening a passageway to the west from the Atlantic seaboard. The spirit of "freedom" in defying the British Proclamation Line and venturing through the gap is embodied in the figure of Daniel Boone. Boone's oldest son James was tortured to death by the Shawnee Indians, yet Boone remained undaunted in his quest. Donald J. Trump appears as a commentator to stress the importance of perseverance in the American character.
If Boone paved the way for settlement, Lewis and Clark charted the territory purchased by Thomas Jefferson from Napoleon. The Corps of Discovery team brought back 300 examples of different species of wildlife. Sacagawea helped the group to survive the ordeal of the Rockies.
A devout Christian, Jedediah Smith is the greatest of the trappers. Mauled by a grizzly bear, Smith recovered to continue with his hunting adventures.
In June 1846, George and Tamsen Donner set off on their journey west. George wanted to take a "short cut," but it turned out that he was given inaccurate information. When the group was delayed with an extra one hundred miles and a broken axle, winter came with a sudden and early vengeance to the Sierra Nevadas, resulting in cannibalism for the Donner Party.
The 1830 Trail of Tears was the forced relocation of Native Americans under the Jackson administration. Even the young private John S. Burnett recorded his impressions of sorrow for the tribe members forced to leave their homes sent on a march of a thousand miles.
Young Abe Lincoln embodies the spirit of the settler in the Midwest. Traveling by riverboat down the Mississippi, young Abe observes the wave of the future in steamboat travel that will turn the Midwest into a new economic powerhouse.
