Wonderous Times on the Frontier Book Review
Dee Brown Writes From the Perspective Those Who Lived in the West
Aug 8, 2009
Dee Brown begins his book by stating that living on the frontier was not easy and at times, the days and nights were very lonely, especially to the first adventurers who traveled west. Out of fear, boredom, and loneliness the frontiersmen would make up stories to share with travelers they met along the way or if they came across a settlement.
Who Were the First Frontiersmen
The first frontiersmen that traveled toward west were Boone, Crockett, Jim Bridger, and Kit Carson. Their stories would eventually be picked up by reporters and writers. Mark Twain is the most familiar writer of “tall” tales.
Brown shared how Mark Twain and the media took stories and made them more creative than they already were. The stories of Twain and others would become Hollywood movies. The movies generated stereotypes of what the west was like during the westward expansion.
Brown went on to state throughout his book how the life of the pioneers was not easy. The author says that the west lacked the necessary convinces of the east. There were diseases, fear of attacks from not only Indians, but also from bandits. The weather was a constant concern. The people never knew what to expect until they were in the midst of hailstorms, blizzards, heat waves, tornadoes, floods, prairie fires, and insect pestilence. Brown showed that even though the people had such disastrous events, they were still able to look to the lighter side of life.
One story Brown told in particular was that of Horace Greeley, when he traveled west searching for gold. The miners outside of Denver knew Greeley was coming so before he arrived they took some gold dust, loaded it into a shotgun and fired it into a working claim. When Greeley arrived and directed to that particular mine he was amazed to see how easy it was to pan for gold. When Greeley went back to Denver, he sent a telegram to his newspaper in New York detailing how easy it was to pan for gold in Colorado.
Unusual Titled Chapters Helps Explain History
The titles Brown used for his chapters were creative. Some of the chapters were “There’s a One-Eyed Man in the Game”. This chapter was about gambling and barroom drinking, as well as, the competition between the bartender and the preacher.
This book is a very enjoyable read. The approach that Brown took by gathering stories from the lighter side of the western frontier was creative. He took stories from various newspapers published during the nineteenth century. Two of the newspapers were the New York Times and the Omaha Tribune. His writing technique is simple and easy to ready.
Source:
Brown, Dee. Wonderous Times on the Frontier. Little Rock. August House Publishers. 1991.
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