{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0806119837?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0806119837","authors":["Henry Pickering Walker"],"book_id":"9780806119830","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/the-wagonmasters-9780806119830","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780806119830.jpg?v=614d19c3cfb0c588","description":"From 1822, when the first wagons were used in the Santa Fe trade, until 1880, when the completion of major railroad lines made the wagon train all but obsolete, wagon freighting was essential to the trade, settlement, and growth of the American West, from the Missouri Valley to the Great Basin. Freighters carried goods to and from Santa Fe, bringing in much of the trade goods for the settlements of the Mountain West. Under contract to the government, they supplied the army sent to fight Mexicans and American Indians. Without the wagonmasters, the flow of gold from the mines of Colorado and Montana, which proved essential during the Civil War, would have been delayed at least a decade. The Wagonmasters is the first comprehensive account of this colorful bygone industry and the men who worked the wagon trains—bullwhackers and mule skinners. A breed apart, they developed their own customs and language, greatly enriching American speech. The business was hard, dirty, and dangerous, but the wagon freighters, like the U.S. mail, almost always came through.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780806119830","publication_date":"19860415","publisher":"University of Oklahoma Press","slug":"the-wagonmasters","subtitle":"High Plains Freighting From the Earliest Days of the Santa Fe Trail to 1880","title":"The Wagonmasters"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"TRA004010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Railroad History","score":0.7112,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036130","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Southwest U.S. History","score":0.7013,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036140","confidence_band":"low","label":"Western U.S. History","score":0.6891,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"TRA004010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Railroad History","score":0.7112,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036130","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Southwest U.S. History","score":0.7013,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036140","confidence_band":"low","label":"Western U.S. History","score":0.6891,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"BUS070100","confidence_band":"high","label":"How Transportation Works","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036040","confidence_band":"high","label":"19th-Century America","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"TRA000000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Transportation","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Railroad History","score":0.7112,"slug":"railroad-history"},{"label":"Southwest U.S. History","score":0.7013,"slug":"southwest-u-s-history"},{"label":"Western U.S. History","score":0.6891,"slug":"western-u-s-history"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in wagon freighting's role in western growth","Readers curious about wagon-train workers and their customs"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Stephen E. Ambrose"],"book_id":"9780743203173","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780743203173.jpg?v=61edf37ce28c5952","score":0.6754,"title":"Nothing Like It in the World","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780743203173"},{"authors":["James Dodson"],"book_id":"9781476746746","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781476746746.jpg?v=1b30ceff67b947bd","score":0.6651,"title":"The Road That Made America","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781476746746"},{"authors":["Barbara Brenner"],"book_id":"9780064440523","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780064440523.jpg?v=b2114a3bd43c2b36","score":0.6466,"title":"Wagon Wheels","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780064440523"},{"authors":["Andy Adams"],"book_id":"9780618083480","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780618083480.jpg?v=b71140ce754274fd","score":0.6454,"title":"The Log of a Cowboy","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780618083480"},{"authors":["Stephen Brennan"],"book_id":"9781510719040","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781510719040.jpg?v=faa59720d7659ccb","score":0.6322,"title":"The Adventures of the Mountain Men","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781510719040"},{"authors":["Paul Andrew Hutton"],"book_id":"9781524746131","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781524746131.jpg?v=9d0ddd9719d3d2cb","score":0.6291,"title":"The Undiscovered Country","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781524746131"}],"topics":[],"what_you_get":["Themes: Wagon freighting and western growth, Santa Fe trade, Wagon-train workers' customs.","Reading lane: Railroad History and Southwest U.s. History.","Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.92,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["Readers interested in wagon freighting's role in western growth","Readers curious about wagon-train workers and their customs"],"themes":["Wagon freighting and western growth","Santa Fe trade","Wagon-train workers' customs"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":7,"goodreads_reviews_count":3,"quality_score":0.8316}}