1801 April 30: Jefferson purchases Louisiana Territory from Napoleon, acquiring 800,000 square miles

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1801 April 30 Jefferson purchases Louisiana
Territory from Napoleon, acquiring 800,000 square
miles for 15 million.
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The Wild West

• The American West in the Nineteenth Century

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1804 May 14 The Lewis and Clark Expedition sets
out from St. Louis. The party will explore 8000
miles along the Missouri and Columbia Rivers as
far as the Pacific, returning in 1806.
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1806 July 15 While exploring the southern
portion of the Louisiana Purchase, Zebulon Pike
sees the famous peak that now bears his name  
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1811 November 7 William Henry Harrison and 800
soldiers defeat Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee prophet,
and destroy Prophetstown
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The Prophet or Wabokieshiek (White Cloud) was an
Indian chief of the Winnebago tribe, whose
village was known as The Prophet's Town. From the
Bent Wilson History of Whiteside County, "The
township was early known as being the home of the
Prophet, a noted Indian chief of the Winnebago
tribe, his habitation being near where the
village of Prophetstown now stands. His village
was called Prophet's Town. A portrait of this
celebrated Indian, from the original painting by
Geo. Catlin,
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"No tribe has the right to sell, even to each
other, much less to strangers.... Sell a country!
Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as
the earth? Didn't the Great Spirit make them all
for the use of his children? The way, the only
way to stop this evil is for the red man to unite
in claiming a common and equal right in the land,
as it was first, and should be now, for it was
never divided." Tecumseh, Chief of the Shawnee
Nation
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The town was founded in May, 1808, when two
Shawnee brothers, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa (the
Prophet), left their native Ohio after being
permitted to settle on these Potawatomi and
Kickapoo -- held lands. Tecumseh and the Prophet
planned to unite many tribes into an organized
defense against the growing number of western
settlers. Through this union, they could defend
the lands they had lived on for thousands of
years
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1814 October 5 The Indian leader Tecumseh is
killed at the battle of the Thames in Canada,
ending his hopes for an Indian confederation
resisting American expansion
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1814 May 27 The Creek Chief Red Eagle
surrenders to General Andrew Jackson after the
battle of Horse Shoe Bend, opening southern and
western Alabama to white settlement.
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1820 April 24 The Land Act of 1820 reduces the
price of land to 1.25 an acre for a minimum of
80 acres (down from 1.64 per acre for a minimum
of 160 acres).
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1822 Stephen F. Austin establishes an American
colony in Texas.  
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1830 May 28 President Jackson signs the Indian
Removal Acts, which promises financial
compensation to Indian tribes that agree to
resettle on lands west of the Mississippi River.
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1832 April 6 The Black Hawk War begins when
Black Hawk, chief of the Sauk Indians, crosses
the Mississippi River to plant corn on the
tribe's old fields in Illinois. The Sauks had
ceded their lands in exchange for new land in
Iowa, but were unable to support themselves
there. Capt. Abraham Lincoln and Lieut. Jefferson
Davis took part in the conflict. The Sauk
surrendered in August, after many older men,
women, and children were massacred in Wisconsin
while carrying white flags.
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1833 Samuel Colt introduces the "six-shooter,"
the first handgun with a revolving barrel God
didnt make all men equal, Sam Colt did.
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1838 December 14,000 Cherokees are forcibly
removed from western Georgia and southeastern
Tennessee and marched down the Trail of Tears to
Oklahoma. Some 4,000 died en route.
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1840
22
1840

• In its continuing hostilities with Mexico, Texas
  allies itself with Mexican rebels in the southern
  state of Yucatan, sending a small navy to
  blockade Mexican ports. Texans also lend support
  to anti-government forces in Mexico's northern
  states, providing a target for Mexican
  nationalists who hope to unify their strife-torn
  country by stirring up hatred of a common enemy

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1841 The first wagon train arrives in California

24
1841

• John Sutter buys Fort Ross north of San
  Francisco, ending Russia's thirty-year presence
  in California. Sutter dismantles the settlement
  and carries it to his newly established Fort
  Sutter at the junction of the Sacramento and
  American Rivers.

25
1841

• John Bidwell organizes the Western Emigration
  Society and leads the first wagon train of
  pioneers across the Rockies,

26
1842

• Lieutenant John C. Fremont of the Army
  Topographical Corps leads a scientific expedition
  into the Rocky Mountains, guided by the mountain
  man Kit Carson. Crossing into the mountains at
  South Pass, Fremont explores the Wind River
  Mountain region, pausing to plant a specially
  prepared flag on a high peak which he names for
  himself. On his return, Fremont's account of the
  expedition and expert maps are ordered published
  by Congress.

27
1842

• Francisco Lopez discovers gold dust in the roots
  of an onion he dug up for lunch, touching off a
  local gold rush to San Feliciano Canyon near Los
  Angeles, but news of the discovery is largely
  ignored elsewhere.

28
1842

• Responding to years of harassment along the Texas
  border, Mexican troops strike San Antonio,
  killing many of the town's defenders and carrying
  off many others as prisoners. This action, called
  "Dawson's Massacre," leads to the removal of the
  Texas capital from Austin to Washington-on-the-Bra
  zos, and to a retaliatory attack on Santa Fe.

29
1843

• THE OREGON TRAILSeasoned mountain men Jim
  Bridger and Louis Vasquez establish Fort Bridger
  on the Green River to re-supply migrants
  traveling the Oregon Trail. Theirs is perhaps the
  first mountain outpost not designed as a trading
  post for trappers.

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Whitman to Oregon
The Great Migration, a party of one thousand
pioneers, heads west from Independence, Missouri,
on the Oregon Trail, guided by Dr. Marcus
Whitman, who is returning to his mission on the
Columbia River. Forming a train of more than one
hundred wagons, and trailing a herd of 5,000
cattle, the pioneers travel along the south bank
of the Platte, then cross north to Fort Laramie
in Wyoming. Here they follow the North Platte to
the Sweetwater, which leads up into South Pass.
Once through the pass, they cross the Green River
Valley to newly established Fort Bridger, then
turn north to Fort Hall on the Snake River, which
leads them to Whitman's Mission. Once in Oregon,
they strike out along the Columbia for the
fertile lands of the Willamette Valley, the
endpoint to a journey of 2,000 miles. After the
mass exodus of 1843, the migration to Oregon
becomes an annual event, with thousands more
making the trek every year.
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1843

• Joseph Smith records his revelation that plural
  marriage should be a practice of the Mormon
  church.

32
1843

• Restored to power in Mexico, President Santa Anna
  warns that American annexation of Texas will be
  considered an act of war.

33
1843

• Guided by Kit Carson, John C. Fremont launches a
  more ambitious expedition into the West,
  traveling from the Great Salt Lake north into
  Oregon, then across the Sierra Nevada Mountains
  into California, and finally eastward across what
  Fremont calls the "Great Basin" and over the
  Wasatch Mountains to the Arkansas River in
  Colorado. Fremont's report, published in 1844,
  again by Congressional order, becomes a
  best-seller, and his map of the West becomes a
  travel guide to pioneers on the Oregon Trail.

34
1844

• John C. Calhoun negotiates an annexation treaty
  between Texas and the United States, but
  abolitionists block its ratification by the
  Senate.

35
1844

• Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother,
  Hyrum, are killed by a mob at Carthage, Illinois.
  Brigham Young becomes the new head of the church.

36
1844

• James K. Polk is elected President with the
  slogan "54-40 or Fight" -- a promise to set the
  disputed northern border of the Oregon Territory
  at 54 degrees, 40 minutes by diplomacy or war,
  and an implicit promise to expand American
  territories in every direction.

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1845

• Dec 29 Texas 28th state

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1845
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1845
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1845

• John L. Sullivan, editor of the United States
  Magazine and Democratic Review, criticizes
  American temerity toward Mexico and argues that
  it is "our Manifest Destiny...to overspread the
  continent allotted by Providence for the free
  development of our yearly multiplying millions."

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1845

• TEXAS AND THE MEXICAN WAROutgoing President John
  Tyler signs a congressional joint resolution to
  annex Texas and make it part of the union. In
  response, Mexico severs diplomatic relations with
  the United States. When Texas accepts annexation,
  newly-elected President James K. Polk sends a
  force under General Zachary Taylor to the Mexican
  border.

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At the same time, Polk sends a representative to
Mexico City to offer financial compensation for
the loss of Texas and to explore whether Mexico
will sell the territories of California and New
Mexico for a combined 40 million. Insulted, the
Mexicans reject the American proposals and
prepare for war. Texas enters the Union at year's
end.
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1846

• In March, American forces under Zachary Taylor
  cross the Nueces River, which Mexico regards as
  the Texas border, and take up positions along the
  Rio Grande, which is the border Texans claim. In
  response to this provocation, a brigade of 1,600
  Mexicans crosses the river in late April, where
  they overwhelm an American cavalry patrol and
  then wait for the main body of the Mexican army
  to press the attack. When word of this encounter
  reaches Washington, President Polk takes the
  opportunity to declare war on Mexico.

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By early May, nearly 4,000 Mexican soldiers have
converged on Palo Alto, where they surprise
Taylor's 3,000 troops on an open field. Bringing
his light field artillery to the front, Taylor
turns back the Mexican charge, forcing a retreat.
The battle is an early example of the carnage to
come when industrial age weaponry confronts
traditional battlefield tactics. Over the next
two years, more than 13,000 Americans die in the
Mexican War, which prepares a generation of
military leaders for the Civil War.
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1846

• Britain and the United States reach a compromise
  in the Pacific Northwest, setting the Oregon
  Territory's northern border at the 49th parallel.

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1846

• CALIFORNIA AND THE MEXICAN WARIn March, John C.
  Fremont, on his third expedition through the
  West, raises the American flag over California at
  an improvised fort near Monterey, but he soon
  abandons his impetuous efforts and turns toward
  Oregon. On the way, however, he receives word of
  the impending Mexican War and returns to
  California to play a part in its conquest.

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In June, Fremont joins forces with a group of
Americans who capture Mariano Vallejo, the
amicable commandante of the Sonora region, and
proclaim California an independent republic. But
their "Bear Flag Revolt," named for its
distinctive banner, comes to an end in July, when
American naval forces arrive in Monterey and take
control of the port without firing a shot.
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Over the following months, American troops under
Commodore Robert F. Stockton, aided by Fremont's
so-called California Battalion, capture San
Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles without
bloodshed. In Los Angeles, however, the American
occupation force stirs up violent resentment, and
by October they are driven out by a guerrila
force led by Anrés Pico, brother of the departed
California governor.
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Stockton's first attempt to regain control of Los
Angeles is repulsed, and while he regroups, an
American force arrives from New Mexico, commanded
by General Stephen Kearny. Attacked by Pico's
insurgents at San Pascual, Kearny's troops suffer
heavy losses, but with Stockton's aid they reach
safety in San Diego. Early the next year,
Stockton, Kearny and Fremont combine forces to
recapture Los Angeles, with Fremont accepting the
insurgents' surrender in the Capitulation of
Cahuenga on January 13
50
1846

• Driven from Nauvoo by violent mobs, the Mormons
  head west under the leadership of Brigham Young,
  travelling with the organization of a military
  campaign. They establish Winter Quarters near
  present-day Omaha, Nebraska, but despite their
  preparations, suffer near starvation and a
  cholera epidemic that claims 600 lives. At Winter
  Quarters Brigham Young assembles a "Mormon
  Battalion" of 500 volunteers to fight in the
  Mexican War, though by the time they reach
  California early in 1847, the conquest there is
  complete.

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1846

• Dec 28 Iowa 29th state

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1846

• The Donner Party, trapped by heavy snows when it
  attempts to follow the "Hastings Cutoff" through
  the Sierra Nevada Mountains into California, is
  driven to cannibalism as it attempts to survive
  the winter.

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1847

• John C. Fremont is appointed governor of
  California by Commodore Stockton, but he is soon
  arrested by General Kearny, who is under orders
  to act as governor of the province himself.
  Kearny ships Fremont back to Washington, where he
  is convicted of disobeying orders and dismissed
  from the Army.

54
1847

• Brigham Young leads an advance party along the
  Mormon Trail into the Valley of the Great Salt
  Lake, where they arrive on July 23 to begin
  creating a secure refuge for their church. Before
  the day is over, these first settlers begin
  digging irrigation ditches and planting crops.
  And even before the thousands following behind
  them arrive, Brigham Young begins laying out the
  streets of Salt Lake City.

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1848

• THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSHOn January 24, James
  Marshall, a veteran of the Bear Flag Revolt,
  discovers gold on the American River at Coloma
  while building a lumber mill for John Sutter. A
  brief report of the discovery appears in a San
  Francisco newspaper in mid-March, where it goes
  mostly unnoticed.

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In May, Sam Brannan, a Mormon elder who owns a
store near Sutter's Fort, arrives in San
Francisco with a bottle of gold dust and a plan
to draw potential customers for his supplies.
Walking through the streets with the gold dust in
his hand, he shouts, "Gold! Gold from the
American River!" Brannan's publicity stunt sets
off a gold rush that will draw fortune-hunters
from around the world.
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1848

• The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ends the Mexican
  War, giving the United States Texas, California,
  New Mexico and other territories in the
  southwest.

59
1848

• A huge flock of sea gulls arrives providentially
  in the Salt Lake Valley to devour a swarm of
  crickets that had threatened to destroy the
  Mormons' crops.

60
1848

• In December, PresidentJames K. Polk confirms the
  discovery of gold in California, sparking a
  nationwide stampede to the West.

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1848

• May 29 Wisconsin 30th state

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1849

• Forty-niners heading for California's gold fields
  expand the network of trails across the
  continent, as wagon trains stretch across the
  plains and struggle through the mountains as far
  as the eye can see. Forty-niners also come west
  by ship, sailing around Cape Horn or crossing by
  canoe and donkey train through the jungles of
  Panama.

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1849

• Forty-niners pioneer the boomtown life that will
  follow miners throughout the West, a life of
  desperately hard work hardened by gambling,
  drinking, violence and vigilante justice. "Pretty
  Juanita," convicted of murder after stabbing a
  man who had tried to rape her, becomes the first
  person hanged in the California mining camps. She
  gives a laugh and a salute as the rope pulls
  tight.

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1849

• By year's end, more than 80,000 fortune-seekers
  have made their way to California from every
  corner of the world, nearly tripling the
  territory's population.

65
1849

• Alarmed at the sudden incursion of "Gentiles"
  drawn west in search of gold, Brigham Young
  organizes the Perpetual Emigrating Company to
  help Mormon converts in England and Europe make
  the trip to Utah and so increase the Mormon
  population there

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1849

• 80,000 people migrate to California about 55,000
  overland and 25,000 by sea. Only about 700 are
  women.

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1850

• Sep 9 California 31st state

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1853

• Dec. 30 Gadsden Purchase. Mexico sells the
  United States 29,640 square miles of territory
  south of the Gila River (in what is now southern
  Arizona and New Mexico) for 10 million

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1857

• Butterfield Overland mail

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Map of Butterfield Mail Stage Route.  To test the
system, a mailbag was transferred from Tipton,
Missouri to San Francisco, California in 24 days.
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1858

• May 11 Minnesota 32nd state

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1859

• Feb 14 Oregon 33rd state

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1860 Apr. 3 The Pony Express inaugurates
overland male service between St. Joseph, Mo.,
and Sacramento, Calif.
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1861

• Jan 29 Kansas 34th state

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• Chiricahua Apache chief Cochise denies at army
  fort that he has kidnapped a white child. The
  army takes him prisoner but he escapes and takes
  hostages. Instead of an exchange of hostages,
  other Chiricahua being held by the Army, both
  sides kill their hostages. Cochise joins Mangas
  Colorads to drive the Anglos from Arizona

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1862

• 1862 May 20 President Lincoln signs the
  Homestead Act, giving settlers title to 160 acres
  if they worked the land for five years. By 1890,
  375,000 homesteaders received 48 million acres

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Aug. 18

• A Sioux uprising begins in Minnesota after the
  government fails to pay cash annuities agreed to
  under treaty. About a thousand white settlers die
  before the Sioux are defeated in September.
  Leader Little Crow 306 tribesmen executed hanged
  Dec 26

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• Congress promises up to 100 million acres of
  federal land to railroad to connect Mississippi
  to Pacific.

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1863

• Aug. 21 Quantrill's Raiders, which includes
  Frank and Jesse James, attack Lawrence, Kansas.,
  burning 185 buildings 450 raiders including
  Jesse Woodson James 15, Frank 19 Thomas Coleman
  Younger 19

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July 20 Kit Carson reaches Ft. Defiance in
Arizona with federal troops and Ute auxiliaries
to relocate Navajo and Apache.
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Nez Perce forced to sign treaty surrendering
lands in North West

• Ruby Valley Treaty with Shoshone, Washoe and
  other tribes in Nevada gives tribes 23 million
  acres most desert. White retain rights to build
  railroads.

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Gold discovered in Idaho

• Lincoln guarantees railroad builders 16,000 per
  mile of plains track and 48,000 mountain tracks.
  Also land grants along the track right of way

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• Rustling as a major activity begins in Texas
  plains

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1864

• Nov. 29 At dawn, some 700 Colorado volunteers
  led by Col. John Chivington attack a camp of 500
  Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians who were flying an
  American flag and a white flag of truce. By
  nightfall, at least 150 Indians, mostly women and
  children, had been killed and their body parts
  taken as trophies.

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Oct 31 Nevada 46th state

• Congress passes bill to protect Yosemite Valley
  as first national scenic reserve

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1865

• March 3. Lincoln signs Colorado River Indian
  Reservation Act. Includes Mojave Desert in it
  264,250 acres

91
1865

• May 5 First US Train Robbery on the Ohio and
  Mississippi passenger train from Cincinnati to
  St. Louis.

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Philadelphia hatmaker makes what will become
symbol of the west. The 10gallon Stetson.
93
1865

• Chicago stock yards open. Chicago will become
  nations meat-packing center with nine railroads
  at the hub. Pens can hold 10,000 head of cattle
  and 100,000 hogs

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1866

• The first big cattle drive takes place when
  cowboys drive 260,000 head from Texas to Kansans,
  Missouri, and Iowa.

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1867

• Mar 1 Nebraska 37th state

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Livestock dealer McCoy in Abilene, Kansas offers
Texas Ranchers 40 per head of cattle. Price
eventually works out to 20 per head in Kansas,
11 in Texas and 31.50 in Chicago
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1867

• Aug 12. Navajo chiefs forced to sign treaty.
  Population has declined from 10,000 to 8,000.

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1869

• Jan. When Commanche Chief Toch-a-way informs
  Gen. Philip H. Sheridan that he is a "good
  Indian," Sheridan reportedly replied "The only
  good Indian is a dead Indian."

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1869

• May 10 A golden spike is driven into a railroad
  tie at Promontory Point, Utah, completing the
  transcontinental railroad. Built in just over
  three years by 20,000 workers, it had 1,775 miles
  of track. The railroad's promoters received 23
  million acres of land and 64 million in loans as
  an incentive.

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1871

• Mar. 3 Congress declares that Indian tribes will
  no longer be treated as independent nations with
  whom the government must conduct negotiations.
  Indian Appropriation Act makes Indians wards of
  the federal government

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• Dodge City Kansas founded to serve buffalo
  hunters.

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1872

• Cochise and Chiricahua stop resistance. Go to
  reservation

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• June, James gang robs its first train near
  Council Bluff, Iowa. Take 3,000 from cargo and
  3,000 from passengers.

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1972

• Mar 1 Congress sets aside Yellowstone national
  Park 2 million acres

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1874

• The introduction of barbed wire provides the
  first economical way to fence in cattle on the
  Great Plains.

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John Wesley Hardin turns 22. Kills Sheriff
Charles Webb
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Texas Rangers

• Organized in 1874 by the Texas Legislature to
  fight Indians, mexicans bandits, and outlaws.

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The discovery of gold leads thousands of
prospectors to trespass on Indian lands the Black
Hills in Dakota territory
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1876

• June 25 George A. Custer and 265 officers and
  enlisted men are killed by Sioux Indians led by
  Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse at the Little Horn
  River in Montana.

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Aug 1 Colorado admitted 38th state
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1875

• Grant opens Oregon Nez Perce territory to white
  settlement

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1876

• Wild Bill Hickock murdered Aug 2 at Deadwood.
  Age 39

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1877

• June to Oct. Federal troops pursue and capture
  Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians of Oregon
  and force them to live on an Oklahoma
  reservation.

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138

• Outlaws and the western legend

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Wells Fargo stage coach in mining district, c.
1850's
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George Simons, Indian Attack, no date
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Wells Fargo Mug Shots, c. 1850's
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Rufus F. Zogbaum, Painting the Town Red, pen/ink,
1886.
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Nick Eggenhoffer, The Gunfight at the OK Corral.
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Tom Lovell, Christmas at Cripple Creek
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Police Gazette, Texan engaged in "Mounted Pool,"
1886
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Police Gazette illustration, Arizona, 1886
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Terence Duren, Minna Everleigh, Famous Everleigh
Sisters' Bagnio (Cripple Creek, Colorado).
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Creede, Colorado, parlor house with Gramophone
149
Shooting of John Tunstall, Loncoln Co., New
Mexico Police Gazette, 1878-81.
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Billy the Kid, 1859-1881. Shot by Pat Garrett,
Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
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Henry McCarty (Billy the Kid).
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Pat Garrett, c. 1880
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Pat Garrett in his 40's, Uvalde, Texas.
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Three of Quantrill's Bloodthirstiest.
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Tom Horn 1860-1903.
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Tom Horn, Braiding the Rope for the Hanging, 1903
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The Wild Bunch Fort Worth vacation, 1900
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Belle Starr in Fort Smith, Arkansas, 1841-1889.
Shot by son.
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Sundance Kid and Etta Place in New York City
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John Henry Holliday "Doc."
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E. E. Henry photo James Butler Hickock,
Leavenworth, 1867. Shot by Jack McCall, Deadwood,
S.D., 1876.
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Wild Bill's fight with 15 soldiers (Paddy Welch's
saloon), no date.
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Dead soldiers after gunfight, Hayes City,
Kansas.
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Dalton Gang after Coffeyville raid, October 5,
1898
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John Wesley Hardin shot dead in El Paso, 1897
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Frank and Billy Clanton, victims of Gunfight at
OK Corral, October 25, 1881. Shot by Wyatt Earp
and Doc Holliday.
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Cattle Kate lynched by Wyoming Stockmen.
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R.P.A., "The Spectre of the Sierras," Buffalo
Bill Novels, 1917, (British).
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1881 July 19

• Sitting Bull and other Sioux Indians return to
  the United States from Canada

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1887 Feb. 8

• The Dawes Severalty Act subdivides Indian
  reservations into individual plots of land of 160
  to 320 acres. "Surplus" lands are sold to white
  settlers.

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1889

• Nov 2 North and South Dakota 39 and 40th states
• Nov 8 Montana 41st state
• Nov 11 Washington becomes 42nd state

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1890

• The US Bureau of the Census announces that the
  western frontier was now closed

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•  
• July 3 Idaho becomes 43rd state
• July 10 Wyoming admitted as 44th state

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Dec. 15, 1890

• Indian police kill Sitting Bull in South Dakota

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Dec. 29 1890

• Wounded Knee Massacre