Season 1 (1996)

The People (1500-1806)
10.0

September 15, 1996 • 1h 20m

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 i...Read more

Empire Upon The Trails (1806-1848)
10.0

September 16, 1996 • 1h 20m

Americans head west along many pathways -- following the fur trade into the mountains, fighting for self-determination in Texas, s...Read more

The Speck Of The Future (1848-1856)
10.0

September 17, 1996 • 1h 20m

The Gold Rush brings the whole world to the West, as 49ers from Asia, South America and the eastern states scramble for “a share o...Read more

Death Runs Riot (1856-1868)
0.0

September 18, 1996 • 1h 20m

Civil war comes early to the West. In “Bleeding Kansas,” abolitionists battle for free soil. In Utah, federal troops march against...Read more

The Grandest Enterprise Under God (1868-1874)
0.0

September 19, 1996 • 1h 20m

A triumph of the human spirit, the transcontinental railroad opens a new era in the West, carrying homesteaders onto the prairies,...Read more

Fight No More Forever (1874-1877)
0.0

September 20, 1996 • 1h 20m

The federal government tightens its grip on the West, but three bold spirits remain defiant -- Sitting Bull, who prophesies his pe...Read more

The Geography Of Hope (1877-1887)
0.0

September 21, 1996 • 1h 20m

Newcomers arrive by the millions, bringing a new spirit of conformity to the West. Indian children are taught to forsake their her...Read more

Ghost Dance (1887 -1914)
0.0

September 22, 1996 • 1h 20m

As settlers race to claim tribal lands, Native Americans take up the Ghost Dance, trusting in its power to restore a lost way of l...Read more

One Sky Above Us (1887-1914)
0.0

September 23, 1996 • 1h 20m

Los Angeles steals its water supply, millions of Mexicans migrate north, and Hollywood begins to shape the West and the nation's image of it.