Mimi (shrimpiemimi)

No longer distracted, and driven by a sense of manifest destiny, hopes for a better life, and the usual hunt for adventure and wealth, homesteaders, prospectors, merchants, preachers and outlaws flooded the lands to the west. In a couple of generations, even remote reaches of America had a semblance of sophistication (after slaughtering the indigenous inhabitants), given the fortunes being made in minerals and livestock and timber, and sensibility, thanks to the God-fearing families settling this "Wild West." All along the eastern and gulf seaboards, European immigrants - drawn by the "American Dream" - poured into the country. These were the people who died by the thousands to break the sod, build the railroads, mine the mountains, and end the lawlessness.