If you’re looking to find “how the west was won”, you’ll learn from these pages that it was won with courage, perseverance, adventure, inventiveness and strength of purpose. The  American History of the Wild West frontier is filled with interesting facts about pioneer people such as James Bowie, General Armstrong Custer, Sam Houston, and Levi Strauss who invented blue jeans pants.  The Lewis & Clark Expedition, which marked the Northwest Passage, was a great adventure and a great part of American history.  Other events such as the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral or the tragic events of the Donner Party illustrate that this period in America’s history was dangerous and deadly.  It truly was the Wild West.  In 1883, Texas purchased "The Alamo" from the Catholic Church to preserve it as an historic shrine and "Buffalo Bill" Cody staged his first Wild West Show at the Omaha fairgrounds.  It featured a herd of buffalo and a troupe of cowboys, Indians and vaqueros who re-enacted a cattle round-up, a stagecoach hold-up and other scenes drawn from Cody's own life on the frontier.