The Winning of the West

In a brief space of time, 50 years, was accomplished the stupendous task, entitled by President Roosevelt "the winning of the West," an accomplishment made possible by the sturdy character of the men and women who so fearlessly and laboriously carried on once they set their faces toward tho golden West. Accustomed to frugality and hard labor, inured to hardships and privation, stern in self-discipline and faith, mighty in determination and self-reliance, they not only left to posterity an inheritance of fertile land, virgin forests, great water resources, and untold mineral wealth, but, greater than the sum of all material gain, they passed on to this and succeeding generations the principles and traditions of independence, liberty, and justice, an example of the worth of clean living, high purpose, and great faith that should be an inspiration to every loyal American. In the original grant of charter to the several Colonies by Great Britain, the western limits were practically undefined. Several of the Colonies claimed territory extending westward as far as the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio to the Great Lakes. Northwest Territory. - In the compromises made, composing the differences between the Colonies, it was agreed to define the western boundaries of such Colonies to more restricted areas, dedicating the disputed territory to the United States, to be known as the "Northwest Territory," which at the time was occupied by French and British trading posts. This area included what are now the States of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. All territory lying west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, from the Gulf of Mexico to an undetermined northern limit, was then a possession of Spain known as the "Louisiana Territory," transferred by Spain to France and then sold in 1803 to the United States. With the exception of a few venturesome spirits who found their way across the mountains south of the Ohio River and as far west as the Mississippi, this land of ours was an unknown wilderness to the settlers of the Colonies. Alive with deer, buffalo, and small game, rich in timber, fertile of soil, watered by numberless rivers and lakes, America at the close of the War of the Revolution still awaited discovery. Slow development. - The thrilling story of the winning of the West is a series of events accomplished not by military force but rather by the efforts of a host of hardy pioneers who, with indomitable fortitude and incredible labor, won in succession the swamps, rolling prairies, forests, plains, rugged mountains, and the fruitful Pacific slope. No single individual dominated this vast domain. It was the rank and file who conquered in this battle of the wilderness. Its conquest was not quickly accomplished. As in all great movements, leadership was developed, with here and there a man who became identified with some particular period or section.