Moving
On
With
open arms, the Plains States spread
a heartland welcome before the westward traveler.
By
Alan Wilkinson
What’s
endlessly fascinating about the West—and this applies more to the Great Plains
than to the mountains—is the way its history,
every bit as much as its soil, its rivers, its
trees, is at the mercy of the elements.
In
some places, where the white man built forts or
towns and left an occasional stone jail or blockhouse,
that history is highly visible, almost monumental.
In others, where they camped or squatted or drove
their livestock and moved on, they left no mark—at
least, nothing that survived a century and a
half of wind, rain, fire, and snow. All we have
left of
those places is memory; and when those who remember
have gone, we have their journals, letters, and
books—if
they produced any. So an informed journey over
the Plains in search of that history can involve
a little
detective work, one or two literary pilgrimages,
and a lot of traveling through landscape’s
blank pages...
Find
the rest of this exciting article and more in
the July/August 2005 issue of American Cowboy magazine...
 For
more great travel!
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