 In 1800, Kentucky was called the West. Many people left their homes and farms in the East to go West. They headed for the frontier.they wanted land, adventure, and the chance to start a new life.  Pioneers: is a person who goes to live in a new place.  The trip to the west wasn´t easy. Some pioneers traveled by wagon. Oxen pulled the heavy wagons.

 Other pioneers traveled by water, but river travel could be dangerous. Rivers often flooded in the spring.  Once the settlers reached their new home in Kentucky the first thing they saw was forest. Each family´s first job was to cut down trees, they cleared the land and plowed it-, then they planted crops. They built their own houses.  Families made their own clothing, tools, and furniture.

 Traders as well as pioneers helped open up the West.  One big trading center was the Mexican city of Santa Fe. It was a place of beautiful houses and churches. American traded cloth and tools for furs and Mexican silver.  The Mexican government owned the land that is now Texas. The Mexicans wanted the land to be settled, so they invited Americans to live there.

 In 1836, a Mexican general named Santa Anna led an army of about 6,000 men into Texas. They marched toward the town of San Antoni, there about 200 Americans protected the town in a fort called the Alamo.  The Mexican Army surrounded the Alamo, and killed all the Americans that were inside. But a month later, the Texans won an important fight. A man named Sam Houston led a surprise attack against Santa Anna.

 Sam Houston was the first president of Texas. Texas became known as the Lone Star Republic. This was because it was part of neither Mexico nor the United States.  In 1845, Texas joined the United States, now it was the Lone Star State.

 In 1846, the United States and Mexico went to war. Many Americans wanted Mexican lands, and Mexico was angry because Texas had become a state.  The war lasted two years, the United States won. The United States got part of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, California, Nevada, and Utah.

 Mexico and United States didn´t know that there was gold in California. In January 1848, gold was discovered in mountain streams in California.  Thousands of people rushed into the hills and mountains of California looking for gold, the Gold Rush had begun!  By 1849, the rest of the world heard about the gold. Thousands more people rushed to California in search of gold.

 The people who went to California to look for gold were called forty-niners.