Enjoy time-travel through the Old West . . . and enter a world of cowboys, Indians, and cavalry officers, legendary lawmen and gunslingers, gamblers, working girls with hearts of gold, and pioneers building a life on the frontier.<br /><br />The time is 1880. Railroad travel to California is relatively easy, and you can ride a spur line to towns like Santa Fe, but getting to many places in the mountains and plains calls for a sense of adventure. Cowboys drive huge herds of cattle from Texas ranches to raucous Kansas railheads. The Earps and Doc Holliday are in Tombstone; Jesse James and Billy the Kid are still at large. Booming Leadville has just opened its famous opera house, while Virginia City reigns as Queen of the Comstock.<br /><br />This rollicking guide to the Wild West draws on contemporary newspapers, memoirs, diaries, dime novels, and guidebooks as it invites you to . . .<ul> <li> explore on horseback, by stagecoach, and in locomotives; </li> <li> visit Dodge City, Deadwood, Fort Laramie, and other "must-see" locales; </li> <li> witness gunfights and cattle roundups; </li> <li> don a special "Yosemite suit" and ride out to marvel at the giant redwoods and dazzling rock formations.</li></ul>Complete with practical advice on where to stay, what to wear, and what to safely eat, here is the perfect introduction to the exciting days before the West was tamed.