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Westward Expansion
General Sites    Events  People  Art and Literature	Primary Sources  Student Designed Sites  Curriculum Resources  Games

General Sites

The Museum of Westward Expansion
Learn more about America's move west in the 19th century at this site from the National Park Service. You will find a timeline of events and online exhibits.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: Yes Searchable: No

The American West
This site includes sections on key events, Native Americans, mining, outlaws, and pioneers. You will find links to other resources, primary source materials, images, and essays.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

The Lewis and Clark
This companion site to the Ken Burns documentary includes a look at the members of the Corps of Discovery, an exploration of the Native Americans in the lands the Corps traveled, and interactive timeline of events, an interactive story where you can travel the trail, and primary source materials.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle/High School Teacher Section: Yes Searchable: No

New Perspectives on the West
This companion site to the Ken Burns documentary looks at the key people, places and events of western expansion and settlement.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle/High School Teacher Section: Yes Searchable: No

Lewis and Clark: Mapping the West
This site for students from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History explores the voyage of the Corps of Discovery and has sections on cartography.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle/High School Teacher Section: Yes Searchable: No

Lewis and Clark
This site for students from Idaho Public Television has features on the journey and Sacagawea. You will also find journal entries from Lewis and Clark and interviews with historians.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle/High School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Discovering Lewis and Clark
This multimedia site is enhanced by at least one new interpretive episode each month focusing on issues, values and visions relating to the Lewis & Clark Expedition, its preludes, and its aftermath up to the present time. You will find journals of the expedition, photographs, maps, animated graphics, moving pictures, and sound files. The lead producer of the site is Dr. Joseph A. Mussulman.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle/High School Teacher Section: Yes Searchable: Yes

Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis and Clark and the Revealing of America
This site from the Library of Congress draws on the Library's rich collections of exploration material to feature the trek of the Corps of Discovery as a culmination in the quest to connect the East and the West by means of a waterway passage. The exhibition's epilogue focuses on the transcontinental railroad, which replaced the search for a direct water route with a "river of steel." Look for the light bulb icons, they indicate items of special interest to kids and families!
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle/High School Teacher Section: No Searchable: Yes

National Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commemoration
This site includes a look at Indian nations, background information on the expedition, maps of the journey, and links to additional resources.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle/High School Teacher Section: Yes Searchable: Yes

The Lewis and Clark Journey of Discovery
This site from the National Park Service includes an overview of the journey of the Corps of Discovery, a timeline of events, and a look at the U.S. in 1804. You will also find a kids section with activities and games.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle/High School Teacher Section: Yes Searchable: No

The Lewis and Clark and the Maps of Exploration 1507-1814
This online exhibit from the University of Virginia Library examines the planning of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the cartographic tradition that made the expedition possible.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle/High School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

The Roots of Lewis and Clark
This online exhibit from the University of Virginia includes a film looking at Lewis and Clark's Virginia connections, and includes five student designed web sites exploring the legacy and history of Lewis and Clark.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle/High School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Bring Back Your Party Safe
This site from the University of Virginia Health System looks at medicine and health on the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle/High School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery
This site from the University of Virginia Library contains the complete text of the journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle/High School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Ethnography of Lewis and Clark
This site from the the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University contains Native American objects collected by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. You will also find an overview of the expedition at the site.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Elementary/Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Trailblazers
This site from teachers Mike Trinklein and Steve Boettcher looks at Lewis and Clark and some of the other people who ventured west including the Spanish, Alexander Mackenzie, the fur traders, and John Fremont.
Intended Audience: Students Reading Level: Elementary School Teacher Section: Yes Searchable: No

Mountain Men and the Fur Trade
The purpose this web site is to provide a virtual research center for Western Fur Trade History. The emphasis is on the "Mountain Men" in the United States Rocky Mountain region in the period from 1800-50. The site includes primary source materials that focus on the history, traditions, tools, and mode of living, of trappers, explorers, and traders of the period.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle/High School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Oregon Trail in Idaho
Travel in the footsteps of the pioneers who traveled the Oregon Trail, read journal entries and learn about trail landmarks in Idaho.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

The Oregon Trail
This site from teachers Mike Trinklein and Steve Boettcher has lots of information about the Oregon Trail and includes primary source materials.
Intended Audience: Students Reading Level: Elementary School Teacher Section: Yes Searchable: No

The Oregon Trail
Take a virtual tour of the Oregon Trail at this site. You can learn about landmarks on the trail like Independence Rock, Fort Boise and the Whitman Mission.
Intended Audience: Students Reading Level: Elementary School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

The Overland Trail
This site looks at the Overland Trail Mail route was established and owned by Ben Holladay, the "Stagecoach King." Sometimes confused with the "Oregon" or "California" Trail, which actually followed the North Platte Valley from Nebraska through Wyoming, the Overland Trail refers specifically to that portion of the mail and passenger route, established in 1862, that avoided the Indian uprisings that were occurring on the Oregon Trail. The site includes information on the Concord coach, maps of the trail, essays on the trail and region, and biographies of key people, and links to other resources.
Intended Audience: Students Reading Level: Elementary/Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Heritage Gateways
This site for students from the Utah State Office of Education looks at the Mormon Trail Wagon Trek. You will find biographies, journal entries, and activities.
Intended Audience: Students Reading Level: Elementary/Middle School Teacher Section: Yes Searchable: No

Taming the Wilderness: Rivers, Roads, Canals, and Railroads
This site looks at the modes of transportation used to expand westward.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

U.S. Territorial Maps 1775-1920
Maps that tracks the expansion of the United States from 1775-1920..
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Elementary School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Boundaries of the United States and the Several States
Animated maps that track the expansion of the United States from 1650-1907.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Elementary School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Union Pacific Railroad
This site from the Union Pacific Railroad includes a history of the nation first transcontinental railroad; historical maps; biographies; and a photo gallery with advertising posters; stereo views; people; and locations.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Fort Scott
This site from the National Park Service looks at the role Fort Scott in Kansas played in American history. You will find sections on the Osage Indians,manifest destiny, the Mexican War, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, and the Civil War.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Whitman Mission
This site from the National Park Service looks at the role Whitman Mission in Washington state played in U.S. history. You will find information on the Cayuse Indians, the fur trade, and the Oregon trail.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Fort Larned National Historic Site
Take a virtual tour of this fort in Kansas and learn about the role it played in the Indian Wars at this site from the National Park Service. You can also learn about the Plains Indians, Buffalo Soldiers, and the Sante Fe Trail.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Bent's Old Fort
Learn more about this fort, the Sante Fe Trail and the people who traveled the trail at this site from the National Park Service.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Sante Fe Trail
Learn more about this trail that spanned 900 miles of the Great Plains between Missouri and Mexico.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Fort Davis
Learn more about this Texas fort, Buffalo soldiers, Plains Indians, and the Indian Wars at this site from the National Park Service.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Homestead National Monument
Learn more about the homestead act at this site from the National Park Service.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

The Multicultural American West
This site provides links to a wide-variety of resources Native peoples, women, African Americans, Asians, and Latinos in the American West. You will also find sections on art, literature, natural history, and folklore.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

The Gold Rush
This site for students provides background information on the gold rush, fun facts, and activities.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Elementary School Teacher Section: Yes Searchable: No

At Home on the Fringes of the Prairie: 1900-1850
This site from the Illinois State Museum looks at life in early Illinois and includes maps, a timeline, and objects from frontier homes.
Intended Audience: Students Reading Level: Elementary/Middle School Teacher Section: Yes Searchable: No

From Native Prairie to Present
This site looks has sections on pioneer life on the prairie with a focus on farming.
Intended Audience: Students Reading Level: Elementary/Middle School Teacher Section: Yes Searchable: No

Pioneer Camera
This site has photographs of life in North Dakota from 1870 through the turn of the century.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

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Events

Lost in the Grand Canyon
In the summer of 1869 a one-armed Civil War veteran, John Wesley Powell, led an epic journey down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. It was the last important exploration within the continental United States. This companion site to the PBS series The American Experience, looks at the journey, explores the geology of the Grand Canyon, an interactive map of the journey, and biographies of key people.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: High School Teacher Section: Yes Searchable: No

The Donner Party
This companion site to the PBS series The American Experience, looks at the journey and explores other groups who set out for the west. You will also find an interactive map and excerpts from the journal of a Donner party survivor. .
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: High School Teacher Section: Yes Searchable: No

Trail of Tears
In 1838 the U.S. government removed over 16,000 Native Americans from their homes in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia and sent them to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. This site from the National Park Service gives a brief history of this relocation which led to the deaths of thousands of Native Americans.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Trail of Tears Era
Includes a brief history of the trail of tears from the Cherokee Nation as well as other resources from the period.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

The U.S.- Mexican War: 1846-1848
This companion site to the PBS series The U.S.- Mexican War contains an overviews of the war and the events leading up to it, an interactive timeline, and discussion questions.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

San Jacinto Monument and Museum
You will find a history of the battle that ended Mexican rule of Texas here. You will also find a timeline of events, a look at some of the weapons of the era, biographies of the commanders.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: Yes Searchable: No

The U.S.- Mexican War
This site includes a comprehensive history of the conflict, images, maps, primary source documents, a chronology of events, statistics, and images of some artifacts.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle/High School Teacher Section: No Searchable: Yes

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People

The Dolly Madison Project
This site from the University of Virginia is devoted to the life, letters, and legacy of Dolley Payne Todd Madison, wife of James Madison and the most important First Lady of the 19th Century.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

The Life of Sacagawea
This site from the U.S. Postal service looks at the life of Sacagawea.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

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Art and Literature

Colonial Art of the Americas
Explore work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from the Colonial period.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

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Primary Sources

Northwest Ordinance
Online version of the 1787 document that laid the groundwork for westward expansion.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: High School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

The Louisiana Purchase, 1803
Collection of primary source materials dealing with the Louisiana Purchase from the Yale University Avalon Project.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: High School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Louisiana Purchase Treaty, 1803
Online version of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty with France from the National Archives.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: High School Teacher Section: No Searchable: No

Railroad Maps: 1825-1900
Explore the expansion and settlement of the United States with this series of railroad maps from the Library of Congress. Included in the collection are progress report surveys for individual lines, official government surveys, promotional maps, maps showing land grants and rights-of-way, and route guides published by commercial firms.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: Yes

California as I Saw It
This site from the Library of Congress consists of the full texts and illustrations of 190 works documenting the formative era of California's history through eyewitness accounts.
Intended Audience: General Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: No Searchable: Yes

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Student Designed Sites

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Curriculum Resources

The Westward Movement
This learning unit is intended for use with grades 7-9 and focuses on the move Westward in covered wagons.
Intended Audience: Teachers Reading Level: Middle/High School Teacher Section: NA Searchable: No

Westward Expansion
In this elementary school learning unit students investigate the pioneer movement: modes of transportation, reasons for moving, people involved, and the life in general.
Intended Audience: Teachers Reading Level: Middle/High School Teacher Section: NA Searchable: No

Lewis and Clark's Expedition: Curriculum Ideas & Education Resources
This site from the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory includes student projects, teaching ideas, and a look at the flora identified by Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery along the trail.
Intended Audience: Teachers Reading Level: Middle/High School Teacher Section: NA Searchable: No

Little House in the Census: Almanzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder
This lesson plan from the National Archives uses census records to help students explore history.
Intended Audience: Teachers Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: NA Searchable: No

Lewis and Clark Expedition
This site provides a variety of explorations and web sites for students to help them research and learn more about Lewis and Clark.
Intended Audience: Teachers Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: NA Searchable: No

Westward Expansion
Unit of study exploring westward expansion.
Intended Audience: Teachers Reading Level: Middle School Teacher Section: NA Searchable: No

What If I Were a Pioneer Child?
In this webquest for grade 4 students create a time capsule that includes journal entries, a model of a covered wagon, and a brochure about pioneer life.
Intended Audience: Teachers Reading Level: Elementary School Teacher Section: NA Searchable: No

Who Wants To Be a Pioneer?
In this webquest for grade 4 students research pioneer life and then create questions for a game show.
Intended Audience: Teachers Reading Level: Elementary School Teacher Section: NA Searchable: No

Games

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