Washoe County Library System

Discusses the reasons people had for going to live in newly-discovered or newly-settled lands, as the American West of the nineteenth century, the hardships they faced, and their influence on history.

Summary: One winter John Thompson skis across the Sierra Nevada and creates a path upon which mail and people may travel, thus earning his nickname "Snowshoe Thompson."

Follows the life of the nineteenth-century trapper and explorer who earned his reputation on the western frontier.