After building his reputation as a formidable hunter on Lewis and Clark's Expedition into the newly acquired Louisiana Territory, John Colter chooses to stay out in the wilderness and enter the booming fur trade.

After braving the Oregon Trail and settling near the Columbia River, Protestant missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman seek to spread their Christian faith and bring their way of life to the local Cayuse people.

The abduction Cynthia Ann Parker kicks off a series of confrontations; Cynthia Ann's rescue sees her violently removed from her new native family and dropped back into a hostile foreign culture, while pushing her son on a campaign of revenge.

In California, Mexican immigrant Joaquin Murrieta forms a gang of outlaws that spreads terror across the state; a posse of California Rangers, led by Harry Love, takes Murrieta down - but his legend as a hero to the downtrodden lives on to this day.

When Kansas becomes a battleground in the national debate over slavery, settlers on both sides of the issue pour into the territory to determine its future as a free or slave state in its eventual admission to the Union.