Westward Expansion
Trails, forts, and frontier towns from the Louisiana Purchase to the closing of the frontier.
Five landmarks across 5 states. Start with The Alamo, Little Bighorn Battlefield and Tombstone Historic District.
- Landmarks
- 5
- Period
- 1803–1890
Pictured The Alamo
Daniel Schwen · CC BY-SA · via Wikimedia Commons
The Landmarks
- Westward Expansion
The Alamo
San Antonio, TX
The Alamo began as a Spanish mission and became, in 1836, the site of a thirteen-day siege that turned into one of the most famous last stands in American history.
Westward ExpansionLittle Bighorn Battlefield
Crow Agency, MT
Little Bighorn Battlefield marks the site of the most famous Native American victory of the Plains Indian Wars.
Westward ExpansionTombstone Historic District
Tombstone, AZ
Tombstone crammed a legend into a single generation: a silver-boom town that exploded from nothing in the Arizona desert, became one of the wildest settlements in the West, and produced the thirty-second gunfight that would define the American mythology of the frontier.
Westward ExpansionFort Laramie
Fort Laramie, WY
For half a century, nearly every wagon bound for Oregon, California, or Utah passed through Fort Laramie.
Westward ExpansionWounded Knee
Pine Ridge, SD
Wounded Knee is the site of one of the darkest events in American history: the killing of several hundred Lakota men, women, and children by U.S. Army soldiers on December 29, 1890.