Some sought the West with visions of better lives and prosperity, but the realities of survival on the frontier often were much different from what they had dreamed. This month, WyoHistory.org brings you two stories about choices people made in order to survive: one while under direct attack, and another while guiding an expedition through difficult terrain.

We are also continuing our fundraising efforts and hope you’ll consider supporting us.

All of us at WyoHistory.org wish you and yours a happy holiday season and a bright and rewarding New Year!

She stops a skirmish

When a party of Lakota Sioux raiders attacked a small wagon train of Shoshone, white and mixed-race people in 1868, eight-months-pregnant Woman Dress Lamoreaux stopped the skirmish when she climbed from a wagon and threatened the attackers with drastic consequences from her brother, Gall—their war chief—if they continued the fight. Read more in writer Rebecca Hein’s piece Three Mixed-race Families and a Wagon Train Attack: A Story of Frontier Survival at http://www.wyohistory.org/essays/wagon-train-attack-story-frontier-survival.

Carson crosses Wyoming

The trapper and guide Kit Carson traversed what’s now Wyoming dozens of times. Of one of those trips we have a close account—1842, when the careful, competent Carson guided a brash young Lt. John C. Frémont of the Topographical Engineers up the old fur-trade route to South Pass. Learn much more in WyoHistory.org Editor Tom Rea’s article Crossing Wyoming: Kit Carson and a Changing West at http://www.wyohistory.org/essays/crossing-wyoming-kit-carson-and-changing-west.

WyoHistory.org fundraising efforts continue

Thanks to many of you for your generosity during our November direct-mail campaign! In 2016 we embark on exciting projects—with the Wyoming Humanities Council on Wyoming newspapers of the past, with the State Historic Preservation Office expanding their GPS-triggered audio tour of historic trails sites and with the University of Wyoming College of Education on ways to package our content for easy classroom use.

Please consider making a secure contribution by using the turquoise “Donate” tabat the top of our Home Page. Or send a check—for $25, $50, $100, $250 or an amount of your choosing—directly to WyoHistory.org, P.O. Box 247, Wheatland, WY, 82201. Contributions are tax deductible. WyoHistory.org is a project of the Wyoming State Historical Society, a private, nonprofit, 501(c)3, 62-year-old, 1,600-member organization.