Washoe County Library System

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough rediscovers an important and dramatic chapter in the American storythe settling of the Northwest Territory by dauntless pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community based on ideals that would come to define our country. As part of the Treaty of Paris, in which Great Britain recognized the new United States of America, Britain ceded the land that comprised the immense Northwest Territory,...

Unschooled homesteader Sayward Luckett couldn't even read her own name, but fell in love and married a book-learned frontier lawyer. In the wild, wooded land of 1790s Ohio Territory, she will experience joy and hardships aplenty, raising seven children and many grandchildren while suffering inconstancies of the heart and enduring the difficulties of settling a new land.

Elizabeth Thatcher, a young teacher who left her life of high society to teach out west in Coal Valley, has been home with her family in the city. Feeling that it2s time to return to teaching in Coal Valley, Elizabeth goes back to the small mining town. However, life has unexpected challenges in store for the young teacher when she runs into an old flame in her new home.

Elizabeth Thatcher is a young teacher who left her life of high society to teach out west in Coal Valley, a small mining town. Despite the challenges that now face her, Elizabeth finds her work fulfilling and even finds herself falling for the handsome constable Jack Thornton. However, when both of their siblings are in an accident, a rift forms between Jack and Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Thatcher is a young teacher accustomed to high society, so she experiences culture shock when she gets her first classroom assignment in Coal Valley. Life in the small mining town is filled with challenges. A recent explosion has killed more than a dozen of the town's miners, compelling the widows of those men to work in the mines to earn money.

Schoolteacher Elizabeth gets a fresh start with the handsome Mountie Jack after she reassures him that she declined the proposal from her childhood friend, and instead would like to try to make things work with Jack. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's close friend Abigail encounters a young orphan who has been stealing food. Abigail decides to show the boy kindness by taking care of him and his ill sister.

The Donner Party expedition is one of the most notorious stories in all of American history. It's also a fascinating snapshot of the westward expansion of the United States, and the families and individuals who sacrificed so much to build new lives in a largely unknown landscape. From the preparation for the journey to each disastrous leg of the trip, this book shows the specific bad decisions that led to the party's predicament in the Sierra Nevada...