History Hour with Jordan Thomas

Between 1840 and 1860 over 300,000 people headed west by covered wagon with the hope of finding a better life. Whether they were searching for land, gold, or something else, the journey west was difficult. Roughly 1 in 250 emigrants kept a written record of their time on the trails, leaving historians with a rich history left behind by those who lived it. Using the emigrants’ diaries we will follow their journeys across the plains, the mountains, and the deserts of the western United States to settle the west.