The Way West: Disc 2: 1865-1869: The Approach of Civilization

Narrated by Russell Baker

Examines the extra-ordinary four year period immediately following the Civil War, when the restless war-weary nation took up the task of conquering the West with renewed fury and speed. Year by year, railroads penetrated ever farther out on the Great Plains, threatening to destroy the last buffalo ranges of Native Americans. In response, tribes mounted a furious counter-offensive, and a handful of key western figures-Custer, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull- came to the fore, but in 1869, when the two ends of the transcontinental railroad finally joined up in Utah- the fate of North Americans across the West was sealed.