Burlington Public Library

In the summer of 1889, a mysterious and charismatic man rides into a small Wyoming valley, where he joins homesteaders who take a stand against a bullying cattle rancher, and where he changes the lives of a young boy and his parents.

At what point does a group of strangers become a community? When young Bendigo Shafter and a ragtag bunch of travelers settle in the rugged Wyoming mountains, they quickly come to depend on a toughness and wisdom many of them never knew they possessed. Led by the beautiful and resourceful widow Ruth Macken, the settlers battle harsh winters, renegade opportunists, and the destructive lure of gold. Through these brutally demanding experiences, young...

In 1890s Wyoming, seventeen-year-old Alden Clare assumes the responsibility of earning enough money to buy back his family's foreclosed land, taking care of his older brother's family, and helping the attractive daughter of a homesteader who is being harrassed by ruffians.

Rafe Caradec - gambler, wanderer, soldier of fortune - was as hard a man as the battlefields and waterfronts of Latin America could fashion, but he was as good as his word. As Charles Rodney lay dying in a dank ship's fo'c'sle. Rafe swore to make sure that Rodney's Wyoming ranch went to his daughter, Ann. In Painted Rock, Wyoming, Caradec found land for a man to love, miles of rolling grasslands and towering mountains. He also found that one of the...

THE GREATEST WESTERN WRITER OF THE 21ST CENTURY Selling his gun to the highest bidder, sharpshooter Monte Carson rode side by side with Big Jim Slaughter, the most feared hombre in Wyoming Territory. But when Monte decided to reform his ways and give back $50,000 in stolen army payroll, he made an enemy in Slaughter and a friend in mountain man Smoke Jensen. Now, an enraged Slaughter wants his money, and if he doesn't get it, he's going to kill...

In the 1830s in the wild Wyoming territory, young fur trapper Jonathan Byrd accompanies his older partner to the yearly Rendezvous, a time for trappers to sell and trade goods along with merrymaking and games. Persuaded to join in, Jonathan wins a Crow pony, which he reluctantly accepts, and the Crow chief's daughter, whom he refuses. Jonathan means to give up the high country life, and sets out to make a peaceful home of a little folded valley called...

"As the old ways of the nineteenth century fade, Out of the Darkness tells a story that touches on the themes and issues America will face in the new century that looms ahead. It is a story of technology and its place in society. It is a story of violence, a doctor's responsibility to his patient, and a lawyer's responsibility to his client. It is a story of forbidden love, and a story of a timid, terrified young woman's finding her courage. It questions...