- Created By
- First Aired on
Sep 15, 1996
- Popularity: 10.3333
- 16 votes
- Networks
- (US)
- Production
Insignia Films (US)
- Status: Ended
Show Ended
1 seaons till Sep 23, 1996
Last episode: One Sky Above Us (1887-1914)
Seasons & episodes
Total 1 seasons, 9 episodes
Season 1
Aired
Episode 1The People (1500-1806)80 min
The West begins as the whole world to the people who live there. It becomes a New World when Europeans arrive, a world shaken by incompatible visions. And almost three centuries later, when Lewis and Clark venture west to find a Northwest Passage, this world becomes the testing-ground for a young nation's continent-spanning dream.
Episode 2Empire Upon The Trails (1806-1848)80 min
Americans head west along many pathways -- following the fur trade into the mountains, fighting for self-determination in Texas, seeking religious freedom in Utah or a better life along the Oregon Trail. But whatever direction they travel, they move closer with every step to a “Manifest Destiny” that will make the West their own.
Episode 3The Speck Of The Future (1848-1856)80 min
The Gold Rush brings the whole world to the West, as 49ers from Asia, South America and the eastern states scramble for “a share of the rocks,” littering the hills with mining towns and creating the West’s first metropolis. But in the push to strike it rich, many are violently pushed aside.
Episode 4Death Runs Riot (1856-1868)80 min
Civil war comes early to the West. In “Bleeding Kansas,” abolitionists battle for free soil. In Utah, federal troops march against Mormon polygamy. And along the Rio Grande, oppressed Mexican Americans rebel. The war between North and South unleashes brute savagery in the West, and leaves behind an army prepared for total war against the native peoples of the plains.
Episode 5The Grandest Enterprise Under God (1868-1874)80 min
A triumph of the human spirit, the transcontinental railroad opens a new era in the West, carrying homesteaders onto the prairies, bringing cowboys up the cattle trail from Texas, helping give women the vote in Utah and sending buffalo hunters onto the plains, where they drive a symbol of the West -- and a way of life -- to the brink of extinction.
