Sam Morgan follows his dream and travels west leaving the city of Pittsburgh behind. In his travels west, Sam encounters many interesting characters including Captain William Clark, Jedediah Smith and Tom Fitzpatrick.

The voyageur's highway was the route from Lake Superior along inland waterways to the Minnesota North Country. Countless people-explorers, fur traders, missionaries, map makers, lumberjacks, miners, naturalists-were drawn to the region's woods and lakeshores. Indians, French Canadians, Scandinavians, and Slavs all used the rich resources of the land to follow an old way of life or to find a new one. In a lively, clear style, Grace Lee Nute tells the...

"Majestically it rose from the icy waters, the gateway to the awesome wilderness of Alaska. Sitka drew all brand of adventurers, con men, criminals, and pioneers--men such as trail-tough, battle-hardened Jean LaBarge. He left the swamps of the Susquehanna behind for the rugged beauty--and deadly challenges--of this frozen frontier. But the empire-hungry Russians had already established a foothold in Sitka, and they wouldn't give it up without a fierce...

Jake Ransom was just eighteen years old when he answered an ad in a St. Louis newspaper that would change his life forever. The American Fur Company needed one-hundred enterprising men to travel up the Missouri River--the longest in North America--all the way to its source. They would hunt and trap furs for one, two, or three years. Along the way, they would face unimaginable hardships: grueling weather, wild animals, hunger, exhaustion, and hostile...