Forty Years in the Rockies: Memoirs of an American Frontier Settler (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798234073068)

This fascinating, first-person account of a man who risked everything in search of gold, adventure, freedom, and independence was discovered by his heirs more than a hundred years after his death.

Between 1841 and 1869 an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 people travelled into the American West in covered wagons. David J. Bailey was one of them. In lively and opinionated prose, Bailey portrays the characters of the people in his wagon train (including a touching romance), the hardships of travel and day-to-day life, the small improvised celebrations, the struggle for food, and the second guessing of decisions made by the leaders of the train.

But his adventure doesn't stop there. Bailey also recounts his new life in Virginia City, Montana, and his experiences with various occupations, including farming and ranching, lumberjacking, hostelry, teaching, bridge building, and finally politics.

After many years, his final emigration was to Spokane, Washington, a city he loved and where he raised his family.

By turns harrowing, humorous, and touching, this is the story of one man's search for a better life, a journey marked by moments of great joy and beauty contrasted with times of privation, loss, and danger.