Colorado Parks & Wildlife Research Library

For over thirty years, from the time of Lewis and Clark into the 1840s, the mountain men explored the Great American West. As trappers in a hostile, trackless land, their exploits opened the gates of the mountains for the wagon trains of pioneers who followed them. In Give Your Heart to the Hawks, Win Blevins presents a poetic tribute to these dauntless "first Westerners" and their incredible adventures. Here, among many, are the stories of:* John...

Sodbusters are about equal to farm animals on the social scale of the ranching community of Wyoming in the 1870s. Zach and Carrie Bennett, teenaged children of that wretched class, are determined to escape the scorn. They resolve to trek to Texas on foot. They are babes on the prairie, ignorant of the geography and hostility. This incredible journey through the lawless West reveals human nature at its most base and unveils a capacity for violence...

Jamie Ian MacCallister, an orphan raised by Indians, ventures into Texas and becomes a scout for the volunteer force battling the Mexican army at the Alamo.

"When Indians massacre an army troop, Ross Caldwell's wife fears he's among the victims. But Caldwell is on the run, pursued by bitter enemies from the Civil War. Caldwell finds refuge in the arms of the sultry madam of Last Chance Gulch. But his bloody past catches up with him. A murderous ex-soldier is on his trail, and his wife has tracked him down as well..."--Amazon.com.

Up on the Hi-Line, ranchers are being rustled out of their livelihoods...and their lives. The son of an old friend suspects that these rustlers have murdered his father, and the law is too crooked to get any straight answers. But can the worn-out old marshall live up to the legendary lawman the boy has grown to admire?

"Ellie Taine was a newlywed working the dry land in 1880s Texas when the desperados came. They killed her husband, raped her and left her for dead. But she hunted them down and, along the way, found an inner strength that no man can match. Now ruthless killer Angel Ware has engineered a bold escape from a prison wagon. Blaming his sister Sue for his arrest, Angel and his gang track her down to Ellie's ranch, mount a bloody attack, and take Sue's child....

When mountain man Jordan Gray is hired to guide beautiful Polly Pike to the Black Hills, Gray discovers that she is on the run from her husband--a savage killer who is not about to let her go without a fight.

With his Winchester blazing, Frank Morgan races to rescue Cecil and Ben Tolliver from twenty thundering banditos. When his rifle runs dry, Morgan draws his trusty Colt and drops enough desperados to scatter the rest. Does Don Felipe Almanzar lead these marauding vaqueros, as rancher Tolliver believes? Or do they follow the terrifying Black Scorpion?

Former hired gun Larry Shaw tries to help a prostitute determine the father of her unborn child. Of the three candidates, one stands out--the notorious William H. Bonney. And as a cattle war brews, Bonney has a proposal for Shaw--lend your iron to our side and help us blast our way to victory.