Why Does This Book Matter?

Because it tells a piece of history that relatively few people know about that was important in the formation of this country we are fortunate to call home. Because it reveals character that defined the American West when it was becoming the American West. Because it tells a story of commitment, endurance, fortitude, and perseverance that is relevant to many people in many time periods, and is distinctly relevant to the history of the American West. Because it captures, or attempts to capture, the character of the people who lived those events and the tribulations they faced. Because it looks at people for who they were and what they did, eschewing labels that taint, in an attempt to be truer to substance than to preconceived notions of what substance would have been. Because it brings, or I hope it brings, an understanding of sorts, or a sensitivity to, the experiences the characters in this story would have had, and to the types of characters who would have had them, that is not based in imagination so much as in research and relevant life experience gleaned from ranching in a large western landscape. Because it makes an important story accessible to a broad readership in a form that will educate and entertain.