Introduction<br >AAAAI， A A A AAI， A k A A &<br >THE AMERICAN WEST as a paradigm for the nation as a<br >whole has become， in recent years， almost a clich6. Academics debate<br >its myths and realities. Popular culturists delve into all its aspects. Film-<br >makers approach and retreat from its myriad of images. Television<br >documentarians display its pictorial records with solemn commentaries.<br >At one time or another almost every American has examined the na-<br >tion s Western experience， sometimes with curiosity， sometimes with<br > admiration， awe， incredulity， distaste， or a mixture of all of these.<br > Some years ago Martin Schmitt and I followed the trail of frontier<br >photographers in our first venture into the American West that was.<br >Over a long period we searched for the most telling graphics that we<br >could find， and let the early photographers and artists show us what<br >the West was like. Out of this came three volumes titled Fighting Indians<br >of the West， Trail Driving Days， and The Settlers West. Later we con-<br >sidered the possibilities of additional books that would be similar to<br >them， yet more specialized. We finally decided that within our three<br >volumes we already had included the essence of the Old West. Along<br >with the cowboys and Indians and settlers we had introduced gunfighters<br >and lawmen， wagon trains and railroads， soldiers and explorers， gold<br >and silver miners， newspaper editors， gamblers， entertainers， pioneer<br >women， preachers， doctors， and lawyers. The whole of the West was<br >there.<br > When we first set out to make a book from our findings， we had the<br >naive idea that all we needed to tell our stories were captions beneath<br >the pictures. We soon learned that although a picture may be worth<br > more than ten thousand words， unless one knows the setting of a picture<br >