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Recommended Reading for the Old West

Primary Grades -

Rosie and the Rustlers by Roy Gerrard
Buffalo Bill Cody by Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire
Yippee Yay: A Book About Cowboys and Cowgirls by Gail Gibbons
The Blind Colt and other by Glen Rounds
Wagon Wheels by Barbara Brenner (I Can Read Book, Level 3)
The Josefina Story Quilt (I Can Read Book, Level 3)
Buffalo Bill and Pony Express (I Can Read Book, Level 3)
Book of Cowboy by Holling C. Holling
Book of Indians by Holling C. Holling
Boom Town by Sonia Levitin

Elementary Grades

Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West by Marguerite Henry
Brighty of the Grand Canyon by Marguerite Henry
Little Britches and sequels by Ralph Moody
Smoky the Cowhorse by Will James
Book of Cowboys by Will James
Lone Cowboy by Will James
Cattle Brands by Andy Adams
Why the Chisholm Trail Forks by Andy Adams
By Crumbs, It's Mine by Patricia Beatty
Bonanza Girl by Patricia Beatty
Sing Down the Moon by Scott O'Dell

Middle School and up

Wait for Me, Watch for Me, Eula Bee by Patrica Beatty
My Friend Flicka and sequels by Mary O'Hara
Trail Drive by Andy Adams
Riders of the Purple Sage and others by Zane Grey
Mojave Crossing, Lando, Down the Long Hills and others by Louis L'amour
Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman

Movies

Dodge City with Errol Flynn and Olivia deHavilland made in 1939

Annie Oakley with Barbara Stanwyck made in 1935

Union Pacific with Barbara Stanwyck, directed by Cecil DeMille in 1939, is about the construction of the first transcontinental railroad.

Northwest Passage with Spencer Tracy and Robert Young made in 1940

Jesse James with Henry Fonda and Tyrone Power made in 1939

The Westerner with Gary Cooper in 1940 is set in Texas

The Red River with John Wayne in 1948 is about the first cattle drive on the Chisholm trail

My Darling Clementine with Henry Fonda in 1946 recounts the events leading up to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral

The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, made in 1957

Bend of the River with James Stewart as a hardened guide who leads a wagon train along the Oregon Trail, made in 1952.

Shane with Alan Ladd as a drifter who comes to the aid of homesteading family threatened by a wealthy land baron and his hired gun. Made in 1953.

Pony Express with Charlton Heston is about how Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok join forces to extend the Pony Express route to California. Has some historical inaccuracies.

The Alamo with John Wayne, made in 1960

How the West was Won with John Wayne, Spencer Tracy, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, and so on. Epic covering three generations of a western family set against a background of historical events. Made in 1963.