|
|
|
America Historic Trails 6 DVD Set
Tom Bodett, familiar to many for his work on National Public Radio and
Public Television, hosts this fascinating series on the trails that extended
America's frontiers. Follow in the footsteps and wagon ruts of rugged pioneers,
dauntless homesteaders, reclusive mountain men and stop-at-nothing gold hunters
as they explored, settled and worked the new land. (Available
only as a set.)
Great Wagon Road & Wilderness
Trail: The Great Wagon Road carried hopeful settlers out of
Philadelphia and into the wilds of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The 1,000
mile length of the Wilderness Trail traversed the Shenandoah Valley, crossed the
Cumberland Gap and forged into the unknown lands of
Kentucky.
California Trail & El Camino Real:
Shopkeepers and farmers dropped everything to join the California Gold Rush, but
first they had to cross the deadly 40 Mile Desert and the treacherous Sierra
Nevadas. El Camino Real in New Mexico was the El Paso and Santa Fe trade route
used by the Pueblo Indians and Conquistadors 400 years
ago.
Yukon Gold Rush Trail: Three gold strikes
sent thousands scrambling for the frozen gold fields of the far north between
1896 and 1903. Driven by optimism and gullibility, many found only ruin. Tom
retraces their eager steps from Seattle to the Inside Passage along the Alaskan
coastline and Skagway.
Old Post Road: Early
roads were lifelines thrown across deep wilderness to the isolated residents of
colonial America's far-flung settlements. The Old Post Road carried supplies,
mail and exhausted travelers through 300 miles of wild back-country between
Boston and New York in the 1600s.
River Road & Natchez
Trace: Riverboat-men used The River Road and Natchez Trace for their
up-river return trip from New Orleans. These enterprising roustabouts braved
vicious land pirates and swamps infested with alligators and water moccasins to
make their way back to Natchez and Nashville.
Mormon Trail
& California's Mission Trail: The Mormon Trail crossed the Great
Plains to the Great Salt Lake, bringing the devoted followers of Brigham Young
to their new Zion. California's Mission Trail linked a chain of old Spanish
Missions along the California's coastline from San Fernando to Sonoma.
|
|
Americas' Historic Trails Book
"Hi, this is Tom Bodett. Twenty
years ago my curious nature brought me to new frontiers. Now I'm heading out to
track the journeys of earlier Americans who followed their own curious natures,
on America's Historic
Trails."
So begins the delightful public television
series, America's Historic Trails with Tom Bodett. The series and
this book lead viewers and readers down half-remembered byways in the American
past that are still surprisingly reachable today.
Americans have been setting out to explore new territory
since before our country was born. The lure of the frontier, the urge to see
what's out there, has been a defining national characteristic for more than 400
years. The new public television series America's Historic Trails with Tom
Bodett traces the paths taken by succeeding waves of pioneers and
settlers, visionaries and adventurers as they pushed across the
continent to claim what became these United States. Quakers and Mormons
seeking religious freedom...Union and Confederate soldiers...
homesteaders looking for more land in untamed Kentucky or Oregon...gold
seekers in 1598, and in 1898: all left their stories and their marks on the
American landscape. These colorful characters, their struggles and triumphs, are
recalled in this richly told history--the companion book.
This
guide follows the trails taken by Spanish soldiers marching north from
Mexico in their fruitless 16th-century quest for the fabled "seven cities
gold"...by patriots riding to the trumpet call of freedom at the
Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia...by Daniel Boone trekking into
rugged and still wild Kentucky, by courageous slaves escaping via the
Underground Railway...by adventurers and fortune seekers drawn by
gold fever to California and Alaska.
The brave and the lost, the
ill-fated and the blessed, all left their marks on the American landscape and
their stories on the American panorama. Now you can follow their paths.
|
|
