"Born into every generation are a few restless souls who long for adventure. In the early 1800s this wild breed became mountain men who headed up the Missouri, crossed the Rock-ies and continued west, hunting, trapping and exploring as they went.One mountainman,reflecting the general attitude of the day, wrote, 'We found the richest place for beaver we had yet come across, and it took us forty days to clean that section.' Valley by valley, stream by stream, the mountain men elimina...

"The storyteller spins a web of fantasy while the campfire sends a shower of sparks leaping into the night sky to drift among the ancient stars. It is in this manner that the history of mankind has been passed from one generation to the next. In North America the native people formed their cultures and spiritual beliefs through stories. Stories described the origins of earth and mankind, of floods, fires, hunts, wars, heros, the supernamral, myths and legends. Young people knew what had ha...

"BIG FRANK BATTLE LEANED AN ELBOW AGAINST THE HOOD OF HIS battered, flatbed truck and gazed with arrogant pride over his empire: his secluded valley, his sprawling ranch, his livestock. He had not the slightest inkling that before this particular morning played itself out, his body would fail him, the power he loved to wield so fiercely would crumble to dust and all the ugly secrets he had managed to keep hidden these many years would be laid bare to the world. A blood clot, a puny thing s...

In spare, honest, and picturesque language, Rick Steber sets this Spur Award-winning novel on the Klamath Indian reservation in 1961 just days before the tribe's "termination" by the U. S. government. Each tribal member received a $43,000 settlement from the government in return for the Klamath's 1-million acre reservation and the end of the Klamath's tribal status. Buy the Chief a Cadillac explores life on the reservation for three brothers—the alcoholism, violence, greed, and madness—bro...

"The men who ride the open range of the far West are known under a variety of names: vaquero, range rider, mustanger and buckaroo, but the name most commonly known is cowboy. The nature of a cowboy's work demands independence and toughness. He is a man of action; yet the long, lonely hours spent in the saddle provide ample time to develop a unique outlook on life. Simply put, a cowboy's tenet is, 'What cannot be cured is endured.' And endured with cheerfulness and good humor. It is far bet...

"Through bravery, courage and strength of character these men and women stood head and shoulders above their contemporaries.They are our true Western American Heroes."

"After a day spent working cattle, Waddy Wilder sits in a small town bar on Oregon's dry side contemplating his forty years of buckarooing. He is trying to decide if he should keep rolling along like a tumbleweed, or settle down with that divorced gal on her five-acre ranchette and play husband and daddy to her two kids. Then a woman on the prowl comes along, and they run off to Alaska where the red-hot romance soon cools.Forty Candles on a Cowboy Cake is an entertaining contempora...

"This book is the first telling of what was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the 'longest canoe trip in history'-an eighteen-month, 7,865-mile saga of two young men and a canoe named Muriel. The year was 1936. The place was New York City, where two young office workers, weary of the depression, embarked on one of history's most remarkable expeditions. They left New York City at the foot of 42nd street and paddled their canoe across the uncharted wilds of Canada to Nome, Alas...

This true contemporary story reads like pages ripped from a dime novel. All-Around rodeo cowboy, Mac Griffith, is gunned down after a barroom brawl. The shooter is arrested and charged with murder. At the ensuing trial, a cast of truly colorful western characters parade to the witness stand. It is their testimony—what they have to say and what they are not allowed to say—that leads the jury to make its ultimate decision.After a half-century this case is revisited, and this time thos...

"The men who ride the open range of the far West are known under a variety of names: vaquero, range rider, mustanger and buckaroo, but the name most commonly known is cowboy. The nature of a cowboy's work demands independence and toughness. He is a man of action; yet the long, lonely hours spent in the saddle provide ample time to develop a unique outlook on life. Simply put, a cowboy's tenet is, 'What cannot be cured is endured.' And endured with cheerfulness and good humor. It is far bet...

"A tall tale begins innocently with convincing facts and a few trivial details thrown in. But in the course of the story the limits of believability are stretched to the breaking point. In the end we are left wondering how we could have been so naive, so darn gullible.America's tall tales have been handed down through generations and are tirmly rooted in character, situation and landscape. In the past a skillfully-told yarn was a diversion from the drudgery and monotony of everyday...

"Great-grandfather has witnessed so much change in his life. When he was a boy the horse and buggy was the mode of transportation. He has lived to see aviation progress from a few barnstorming pilots hop-scotching across the country to jet aircraft thundering across the sky. And he was sitting there that day, in front of the television, when men walked on the moon. All the years and hard work have taken their toll but when he is seated in his favorite rocking chair, great-grandchildren sca...