Feature video: Fort Steuben frontier fort
Fort Steuben in the Ohio Valley was one of the earliest forts established to survey the frontier as it was just after the Revolutionary War. Here you can see what the fort was probably like, and what it was like to go on an expedition through the forest and camp away from the safety of the fort.
Playing time: 7 min

Video playlist

Fort Clatsop, Oregon: Exploration frontier
Accurate reconstruction of Fort Clatsop in Oregon, which was originally by Lewis and Clark when they needed to overwinter near the Pacific Ocean. The video shows the inside and outside of the wooden buildings to give an idea of how they were constructed and what they might have been like to stay in.
Playing time: 8 min
Lewis and Clark at Sioux City, Iowa: Exploration frontier
Shows the commemorative statue of Lewis and Clark called 'Spirit of Discovery' at the place where the Corps of Discovery camped in August 1804 following meetings with Native Americans at what was then known as Council Bluff, and the death of expedition member Sergeant Floyd.
Playing time: 3 min
Scotts Bluff, Nebraska: Oregon Train frontier town
A video of Scotts Bluff National Monument in Nebraska. Here is a long line of bluffs where the Great Plains give way to the Rocky Mountains. Scotts Bluff was an important landmark for people on the Oregon Trail as it was near the important Mitchell Pass. The video shows the landscape and the replica wagons at the site to give an idea of what it was like for the pioneers.
Playing time: 6 min
Fort Steuben, Ohio: Ohio Valley frontier town
Shows reconstructed Fort Steuben, which is located near the Ohio River in what is now Ohio. Inside the buildings are artifacts representing what life was like for the early surveyors, fur trappers and traders who lived in such forts and in the forest on what was the frontier in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
Playing time: 7 min
Sod house: prairie frontier building
Shows the construction of a sod house, the first kind of house for poor folks who made the western prairies their home.
Playing time: 5 min
Upper Ohio River: Industrial frontier
In this video, we drive across the Ohio River and along the steep-sided Ohio River Valley. The river was an important means of transport and communication as the frontier advanced. Forts were built first along its banks, and then later towns grew up around them. Later on, people mined resources such as coal, which led to heavy industry, and there are still power plants in the area.
Playing time: 6 min
The Battle of the Alamo: the Texas frontier
Tells the story of the Alamo, from the founding of the mission, through its role as a fort during Mexico's fight from independence from Spain and the Texas revolution that founded the Republic of Texas, to the Battle of Alamo in 1836. During this famous last stand, frontiersman including Jim Bowie, William Travis, and Davy Crockett, fought to the last to try to defend the Alamo from Santa Anna's Mexican army.
Playing time: 10 min
Jefferson, Wisconsin: prairie frontier town
A drive through Jefferson, Wisconsin, describing the complex history of this settlement, which was named for President Jefferson. This video is also a good case study for how different periods of history influenced the development of settlements such as this one, which was originally built on land opened up for loggers and farmers, and which was then affected by the Erie Canal and other later developments.
Playing time: 8 min
Omaha market and historic district: Missouri prairie frontier town
This video uses historic images to tell the story of the settlement's origins and development into "The Gateway of the West", and it also shows what the market area and historic district in Omaha is like today.
Playing time: 5 min
Deadwood, South Dakota: Gold Rush frontier town
Using historic images, and video footage from today, this video looks at the history and development of Deadwood. It was founded in 1876 in the Black Hills of South Dakota as part of the Black Hills Gold Rush. The wealth of the settlement meant it was one of the earliest to have electric lighting, but it was also famous as being a lawless place where Wild Bill Hickok was killed.
Playing time: 4 min
Tombstone, Arizona: Silver Rush frontier town
One of the last Wild West frontier towns and famous for the Fight at the OK Corral.
Playing time: 4 min
Wichita, Kansas: Cattle trail frontier town
One of the great frontier towns where the Chisholm Trail reached the railhead.
Playing time: 4 min
Pierre, South Dakota: Trading post frontier town
Towns grew up along the Mississippi and the Missouri to trade furs and other good produced by mountainmen and Native Americans.
Playing time: 4 min
Crossing the Appalachians: the Appalachian frontier
This video is a drive along Interstate 77, the road which goes from Charleston, West Virginia, to Charlotte, North Carolina. It is useful for giving a sense of the geography of the Appalachians, with high ridges and deep, narrow ridges, and therefore how difficult crossing the Appalachians from east to west must have been for people in the past, especially traveling by wagon during the time of the frontier.
Playing time: 5 min
Sutter's fort: the Californian frontier
Sutter's Fort was close to modern Sacramento. It was at the end of the California Trail and was founded in Mexican colonial days.
Playing time: 5 min
Fort Vancouver: the fur traders' frontier
Fort Vancouver was founded by the Hudson's Bay Company as a British trading post near the Pacific Coast.
Playing time: 4 min
California missions: the Spanish frontier
Missions were the frontier of the Spanish colonisation of the SW and California.
Playing time: 4 min
Cades Cove: Appalachian frontier
Cades Cove was the frontier for poor homesteaders in the Appalachian frontier.
Playing time: 4 min
Frontiersmen of the Rocky and Sierra frontiers
Mountainmen, also called frontiersmen, were the first Europeans in the Rockies frontier.
Playing time: 4 min
The history of America
An introductory video about the history of America, from Native American peoples to the present day, through early settlers, colonial times, revolution and independence, Civil War, the Gilded Age, Immigration, the Great Depression, and more. Designed to support our 'History of America' book.
Playing time: 15 min