Issue 66 How the West Was Really Won

What's inside

How the West Was Really Won: Did You Know?

What a famous painting reveals about America’s move west.

the Editors

How the West Was Really Won: From the Editor — Unexpected Heroes

A diversity of men and women brought the gospel to the Wild West at considerable personal sacrifice.

Mark Galli

Preparing a Way in the Wilderness

Though history has all but forgotten them, it was Christian preachers and teachers who really tamed the West.

Ferenc Morton Szasz

A Church of Their Own

Ethnic congregations were essential for building community in the nation’s most diverse region.

Carl V. Hallberg

No Rest for the Weary

Few pioneers possessed strong enough resolve to keep the Sabbath on the Overland Trail.

Winton U. Solberg

Tested On All Sides

Excerpts from a wagon train diary reveal that traveling overland was much more than a physical challenge.

Mary Richardson Walker

Yesterday’s Christian Woman

Pioneer wives held their households together with a blend of grit and grace.

Diane Severance and others

Forty-Niner Faith

Traditional Christianity didn’t stand much of a chance in the California gold fields.

Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp

Heaven Can Wait

One bold Methodist preached outdoors in front of saloons and brothels.

William Taylor

Christian History Timeline: Growth of the West

Chronology of key events related to the Christian history of the American west.

the Editors

Out Yonder, on the Edge of Things

The most controversial, and most effective, missionary to the West and Alaska, Sheldon Jackson was always pushing the boundaries.

Randy Bishop

Trial by Water

The ordeals of a missionary.

Sheldon Jackson

Alternative Religions

Many non- and semi-Christian groups also laid claim to the West, but none more successfully than the Mormons.

Elesha Coffman

The West That Wasn’t Won

Protestant missions to Native Americans had few shining moments.

Bonnie C. Harvey

Dying To Save

The Whitman Massacre reveals much of what was noble and flawed regarding missions to Native Americans.

Mark Galli

How the West Was Really Won: A Gallery of Local Heroes

The wide-open West was served, state by state, by brave and sometimes beleaguered ministers and missionaries like these.

Mark Ammerman

How the West Was Really Won: Christian History Interview — Land of Crumbling Myths

Why the twentieth-century West—urban and explosive—ain’t what it used to be.

Richard Etulain

How the West Was Really Won: Recommended Resources

Resources to learn more about Christianity in the American west.

the Editors
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