Averaging 400 highway miles per day, in May 2023 we crossed the U.S. from the NYC area to Orange County, CA in our van Morgan in seven days' driving time. Whisking along divided interstate roads and across countless bridges and proceeding over mountain passes and through long tunnels, it's hard to imagine that back in the mid-1800s that same overland trip in a wagon train took up to 6 months to complete!        
We traveled from coast to coast again in May 2024, this time passing through the tunnel that marks the Cumberland Gap, a notch in the Appalachian Mountains that 18th-century frontiersman Daniel Boone established as a gateway for settlement beyond the original colonies. When Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the newly-acquired Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the eyes of the nation turned further westward to the prospects of the vast uncharted territories beyond the Mississippi River that until then were known only to Native Americans, missionaries, and trappers. Whether spurred by religious conviction, word of arable land, or the allure of the Gold Rush, pioneers by the hundreds of thousands would soon fan out across the plains and over the mountains on rutted wagon trails and, later, stagecoach lines, these hopeful but haggard travelers discounting comfort for mere survival.

The Homestead Act of 1863 institutionalized this great migration, for it ceded 160 acres of land to anyone who could cough up $2 and maintain their plot for five consecutive years. The completion of the Transcontinental Railway in 1869 opened a new era of cross-country transport and trade. Soon the first masonry dams were built to support agriculture and provide power to a surging population. By this time, the Indian Wars were over and the Industrial Revolution had transformed the country. The advent of the automobile was at hand and before long tourists would have access to remote sites their forebears had settled.

Perhaps no one recognized the passing of the pioneer era more keenly than President Teddy Roosevelt, who reveled in a cowboy lifestyle on his ranch in Dakota Territory and fought to preserve the rugged landscapes of the West for future generations: "The farther one gets into the wilderness," he wrote, " the greater is the attraction of its lonely freedom."

In our travels we continue to seek out vestiges of our nation's pioneering heritage. Many roads in the Great Plains follow the contours of old homesteads, a checkerboard effect that is familiar to those who favor window seats in flights out west. Down on the ground, old cabins and outbuildings that homesteaders built from hand-hewn wood can still be spotted in the field. Boom-and-bust old mining towns have preserved their historic districts. Folks still wear cowboy hats and not just for fashion. Horses remain a bedrock of life in the countryside. The cowboy ethic plays out in the rodeos that draw crowds from far and wide. And let's not forget the donkeys, those stalwart animals who were prized by pioneers!

We hope you'll enjoy these photos of our some of our favorite Old West sites from 2023-24!