At first, moving west represented the majority of the barriers and obstacles the settlers faced. Indian attacks, blizzards, tornadoes, flash floods, and simply being ill prepared among many other difficult ships cost many settlers their lives and were difficult to overcome. The journey was through uniform, dusty, windswept, treeless nothingness. Temperatures would be well between 110 and below zero. Not to mention there were no trees to protect against storms or to provide protection from storms. In this book there are many diaries, artifacts and first-hand photographs that show what it was like in the 1800s and how difficult it was to make the trip out west and there live. This book tells how the West was conquered. They also include emigrants from China and Europe, newly freed slaves, New England school teachers, and a few farm boys or opportunists from the South and Midwest. They all discovered that the West was so huge and so complimentary. They couldn't believe that this native land was so huge and huge. One of the reasons they headed west was the Homestead Act, which would give deserving sites or land to people who stayed on that land for five years. They took six main trails; the Oregon Trail, the Santa Fe Trail, the Mormon Trail, the Gila River Trail, the California Trail, and the Old Spanish Trail. Some people even went out west on the recently built transcontinental railroad. Settlers could even purchase plains land from the Railway Company. The railroad company had been granted large tracts of land by the United States government on both sides of the railroad and was later sold to settlers. Native Americans suffered from this influx of people from the East and it would change their lives forever. There were many struggles and the quest to stay alive is why we call it the “Wild West” today. Especially when many of them were dishonest scoundrels or simply wanderers and adventurers. Moreover, most of them were armed. The first thing the settlers had to do was dig a well. Digging wells was very difficult work and often had to be done several times because the wells dried up or simply could not reach the water. For newly arrived families, harvesting crops was another of many important tasks..