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History
"The West owes much to those hardy men who, usually from mere love of adventure, wandered alone or in small companies across the wilderness, ever in advance of the settlements and the troops, exploring the unknown, tracing nameless rivers, uncovering hidden water holes in the grim desert, penetrating to every nook and corner of the Great Plains and the mountains beyond, discovering the haunts of Indians, the routes which the wheels of caravans could follow with greatest safety, the best camping spots, the scattered places where wood and water were certain to be found. To such as these -- the scouts and guides of the frontier -- every prairie traveler, every incoming settler, every officer riding at the head of his troop and seeking the savage foe owed gratitude."
Source: Randall Parrish, Frontier Scouts and Guides (1907)