You can visit Sarah Raymond Herndon’s grave today in the quaint, restored mining town of Virginia City, Montana. Her superb journal of the perilous journey by wagon train across the plains in 1865 gives a vivid portrait of the times and the people who risked all for a new life in the frontier West.

Surprising to many modern readers will be the fact that the Raymonds weren’t even sure where they were going to settle when they left everything behind for adventure. They settled in the raucous town of Virginia City, where Sarah married, raised a family, and spent the rest of her life.

A wonderful first-person account of America’s westward expansion.