The Old Trails West is history with the flavor of fiction. It is the story of the great legendary routes that bound a wild land into a nation. The Oregon Trail, El Camino Real, the Butterfield Overland Mail, the Santa Fe Trail—these are names that conjure up the romance of the past. This book recounts the true stories behind the trails: what impelled their exploration, determined their paths, how they contributed to the settling of the West, and most of all, the adventures—sometimes heroic, sometimes tragic—of the brave men who made them.

The old trails are older than most people think. They existed before any humans lived on this continent, beaten into the landscape by the hooves of migrating horses, buffalo, and elk. The Indians were followed by the hooves of migrating horses, buffalo, and elk. The Indians followed the animal tracks. They were so familiar with so many sections of the trails that they could have crossed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, if they had wanted to. They did span the Rockies regularly—blue shells from the Pacific were an item of commerce a thousand miles inland. And behind the Indians came the Europeans, led, oddly enough, by a giant Negro slave.

In The Old Trails West you will penetrate Texas and Northern Mexico with the Spanish conquistadores, explore Arizona with Father Kino—"the Padre on Horseback"— search for the Seven [...] You will cross hostile Indian country with the Mormon Battalion, surmount snow-filled passes and scorching deserts to dig for gold with the Forty-Niners, carry the mail with the Pony Express, discover the depth of Indian loyalty with Lewis and Clark.

The Old Trails West will enrich your vacation as you speed in comfort over many of these same routes. The tinted endpaper maps of all the trails, eighteen detailed maps, and the reproductions of authentic old prints illuminate the stories of these old trails and the men and women who made them.

Only an outstanding Western writer like Ralph Moody, author of such books as Little Britches and Riders of the Pony Express, could tell these tales with the authentic detail and action-filled color they deserve. Mr. Moody knows the trails like the back of his hand. Ever since his boyhood days on a Colorado ranch—when he found deep-worn wagon ruts "leading to nowhere"—he has followed the old routes on foot and horseback. Mr. Moody's own observations as well as his use of original source materials and of the most recent historic research make The Old Trails West both fascinating and informative.

Mr. Moody is a member of the Author's Guild of America, the California Writers Club, and is Secretary-Treasurer of the Western Writers of America. The father of three children, Ralph Moody now lives with his wife, Edna, in Burlingame, California.

From the dust jacket