Discovering Nebraska: A Pioneer’s History of Western Expansion

The narrative of Isaiah Bryant is a story of a pioneer, a striver, and the story of the Plains. This project focuses on a man’s journey westward in the California Gold Rush and his return to the wild Nebraskan prairie. From his parents’ farm in Iowa to a life alone in Nebraska, Isaiah Bryant’s expedition is imparted through letter correspondence, journals, personal notes, and various other writing. The goal of this project is to present a personal story of western expansion to understand American growth as more than a movement of populations, but as a movement of people with motives, lives, and hopes. Isaiah’s model is not only his presence in western settlement but his ability to articulate his actions and reasoning. An aspect to history that can often be lost within statistics. This project generated a paper interpreting Isaiah Bryant based on his relation to a vital time period in American history, emphasizing the significance of Isaiah as a pioneer, writer, and Nebraskan