Watch Ken Burns' The West Season 1 Episode 5 The Grandest Enterprise Under God (1868-1874)

The Grandest Enterprise Under God (1868-1874)

Season 1 Episode 5

Aired date: Sep 19, 1996

Plot: A triumph of the human spirit, the transcontinental railroad opens a new era in the West, carrying homesteaders onto the prairies, bringing cowboys up the cattle trail from Texas, helping give women the vote in Utah and sending buffalo hunters onto the plains, where they drive a symbol of the West -- and a way of life -- to the brink of extinction. MORE

Plot: A triumph of the human spirit, the transcontinental railroad opens a new era in the West, carrying homesteaders onto the prairies, bringing cowboys up the cattle trail from Texas, helping give women the vote in Utah and sending buffalo hunters onto the plains, where they drive a symbol of the West -- and a way of life -- to the brink of extinction. LESS