The Old West Speaks for Itself in this collection of fifteen gripping first-hand accounts dating from 1835 to the turn of the century. Tough Times in Rough Places introduces us to mountainmen, soldiers of fortune, cavalry officers, immigrants, frontier women, prospectors, Mormon pioneers, and lawmen -- real people whose voices are too often muted in the pages of history books or appropriated by Hollywood scriptwriters.

Read of well-known individuals and incidents: the terrible ordeal of the Donner Party; the pursuit of the Apache leader Geronimo; and the confession of John D. Lee, the Mormon militiaman executed for his part in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. John C. Fremont, General George Custer, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, and Pancho Villa also appear, along with other characters and events that are more obscure but no less compelling: the odyssey of James White, who escaped hostile Indians aboard a crude raft that he floated down the Colorado River; the saga of prospector Jack Hoffman, lost inthe Arizona desert for four months; and the kidnapping of the Oatman sisters by a band of Western Yavapais Indians. Neil Carmony and David Brown introduce each selection with useful background information and commentary.

Spend some Tough Times in Rough Places -- with the men and women whose words and voices bring the Old West to life.