The Wild West on 5 Bits a Day

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.

This rollicking guide to the Wild West draws on contemporary newspapers, memoirs, diaries, dime novels, and guidebooks as it invites you to . . .

• explore on horseback, by stagecoach, and in locomotives;
• visit Dodge City, Deadwood, Fort Laramie, and other "must-see" locales;
• witness gunfights and cattle roundups;
• don a special "Yosemite suit" and ride out to marvel at the giant redwoods and dazzling rock formations.

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.