The West— is a documentary film about the American Old West. It was directed by Stephen Ives, the executive producer was Ken Burns and the narrator was Peter Coyote. The film originally aired on PBS in September 1996.

Stephen Ives and Ken Burns had worked together on several films, including The Civil War (1990) and Baseball (1994). In 1988, Ives created his own production company, Insignia Films, and began working on The West as director, with Burns signed on to the project as executive producer. In order to create The West, the film crew traveled over 100,000 miles (160,000 km) via airplane, conducted 72 interviews, visited 74 archives and collections, and filmed more than 250 hours of footage. The film's production was funded by General Motors.

Episode 2: Empire Upon the Trails (1806–1848)



Aired, September 16th 1996; Narrator Peter Coyote



Episode Two covers the years from 1806 to 1848. Once Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery had mapped the unknown regions between the Mississippi and the Pacific, droves of fur trappers, itinerant adventurers, and experimental communities took to the trails and headed west. Empire Upon the Trails explores this archetypal American journey, and carefully examines the facts and personal stories behind such mythic events as the Trail of Tears, the defending of the Alamo, the Mormons' flight to Utah under Brigham Young, and the bloody Mexican-American War.

Specs and Sample Images