Imagine a wagon road stretching 2170 miles from Missouri to Oregon's Willamette Valley. Not a road in any modern sense, just parallel ruts leading across endless prairie, sagebrush desert, and mountains. Calls to the heart of every frontiersman for the drive of land and ownership propelled a nation's expansion into the rugged terrain west of the Mississippi River.  Their journey and subsequent arrival shaped the nature of who we call pioneer.  

The Western Frontier was a rugged environment where rustic artisans utilized every bit of materials possible in an effort to tie them to former roots and pivot to preserving on trail life.

Iron work, rug making, needle arts and candle making are a few of the pioneer arts. Once settled these fashioned wares adorned their new homesteads calling their new abodes homes.

During the westward expansion the pioneer faced limitations in their repertoire for meals. Yet these rugged individuals learned the science of and the chemistry behind camp cooking.  Dutch ovens became the mainstay for the move out west. Preservation and smoking of goods became an integral part of life and survival. 

Despite the perils of pioneering into the great unknown the move out west provided respite at camp downtime. Families and settlers alike celebrated life through both story and dance. Forms of English Country Dancing or folk dancing accompanied the drive out west and homesteaders performed sequences of choreographed steps in unison as an expression of jollity. Outdoor living, abundant game and the need for food supplied frontiersmen with adaptation to trapping with a return to innovation in the handheld catapult otherwise known as the slingshot.