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Home / Periods / United States History / Old West and Frontier America

Period

Old West and Frontier America

1803–1912 CE

Old West and Frontier America covers the expansion of the United States across the continent, especially in the nineteenth century. It involved Indigenous dispossession, military campaigns, migration, cattle drives, mining rushes, railroads, homesteading, law enforcement and mythmaking. The popular image of the West often hides conquest, treaty-breaking and environmental change.

The period matters because it shaped American identity through both history and legend. Frontier stories can include settlers, cowboys, outlaws, marshals, Indigenous nations, Chinese workers, formerly enslaved people, women homesteaders and railroad builders.

Related people for Old West and Frontier America

Aaron Burr1756–1836 Abraham Lincoln1809–1865 Annie Oakley1860–1926 Bass Reeves1838–1910 Brigham Young1801–1877 Buffalo Hump1800–1870 Butch Cassidy1866–1908 Calamity Jane1852–1903 Carrie Adell Strahorn1854–1925 Charles Goodnight1836–1929 Charles “Buffalo” Jones1844–1919 David Carsonc. 1800–1854 Devil Anse Hatfield1839–1921 Doc Holliday1851–1887 Elisha M. Pease1812–1883 Emma Wagner Giesy1833–1916 George Armstrong Custer1839–1876 James G. Blaine1830–1893 Jesse James1847–1882 Johnny Appleseed1774–1845 Johnse Hatfield1862–1922 John Wesley Hardin1853–1895 Josephine Earp1861–1944 Kit Carson1809–1868 Letitia Carsonc. 1814–1888 Lola Montez1821–1861 Lucien Maxwell1818–1875 Manuel Lisa1772–1820 Marcus Whitman1802–1847 Marie Dorionc. 1786–1850 Narcissa Whitman1808–1847 Olive Oatman1837–1903 Randolph McCoy1825–1914 Robert E. Lee1807–1870 Robert E. Strahorn1852–1944 Roseanna McCoy1859–1889 Roy Bean1825–1903 Rutherford B. Hayes1822–1893 Sacagawea1788–1812 Samuel J. Tilden1814–1886 Sitting Bull1831–1890 Tabitha Moffatt Brown1780–1858 Theodore Roosevelt1858–1919 Ulysses S. Grant1822–1885 Wild Bill Hickok1837–1876 Wilhelm Keil1812–1877 William Lobb1809–1864 Wyatt Earp1848–1929

Series

Series about Old West and Frontier America (3 series)

Plainsman Series in Order

by Simon Fairfax 5 books 4.4(5,105)

The Plainsman series follows Nate Carlton from the ruins of the Civil War into the unstable western frontier of Reconstruction America. Across the books he becomes a cattleman, trail boss, rancher, gunfighter and reluctant lawman, moving through mining towns, Comanche country, border violence and railroad crime. The series…

Forlorn River in Order

by Zane Grey 2 books 4.2(1,474)

Forlorn River and Nevada follow Nevada and Ben Ide through wild-horse country, ranching conflict and the struggle to leave a violent past behind. The first novel establishes the friendship and the remote California-Oregon setting; Nevada carries the story into a later phase in which rustlers and old loyalties…

Wanderer of the Wasteland in Order

by Zane Grey 2 books 3.8(944)

Wanderer of the Wasteland and Stairs of Sand are linked desert novels about guilt, identity and the possibility of redemption. The first follows a fugitive through the deserts of southern California from the late 1870s; the sequel returns to related characters and consequences in 1896. The harsh landscape…

Books

30 Best Novels About the Old West and the American frontier

Non-Fiction

30 Best Non-Fiction Books About the Old West and the American frontier

Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.