The newly formed Territory of Colorado was a vast and dangerous frontier in 1861, especially the gold boom towns like Buckskin Joe. Thousands of dollars’ worth of nuggets and dust was being picked up off the ground or being clawed out of mines and streams every day. Joe was just then becoming a town that attracted the kind of scum that wanted something for nothing and did not care who they had to hurt to get it. Miners were afraid to leave their mines to buy food or supplies for fear of claim jumpers. But since they had already killed the game close to the mines, they had no choice. That is about to change.
Seriously injured in a mountain lion attack and only semi-conscious, twenty-one-year-old Newt arrives in Joe being brought there by his horse, JD. Some of his dad’s old Mountain Men friends happen to have wound up there some twenty-five years after beaver was replaced by silk in men’s hats and the Mountain Man beaver trapping era came to a close. Before learning that Newt was the son of their Mountain Man friend Mr. Roddy, they nursed him back to health with the help of a lovely young woman named Margaret. Newt will be quite captivated by her when he finally comes to.
On his prospecting trips Newt had made more money supplying the miners with game than he did panning. With this in mind, Newt and the Mountain Men form a hauling business alliance with local businessman Horace Tabor, destined to become the wealthiest man in Colorado. Newt supplied the meat, Horace the supplies and the Mountain Men the transportation and security and The High Lonesome Freight Company was born. Miners could have food, supplies and equipment delivered to them and send ore to the stamp mill, all without leaving their claims vulnerable or shutting down operations. They made more money, the Mountain Men and Newt made money and Horace increased his sales and was able to buy in volume more cheaply. With the town growing so fast, the miner were not the only ones who used their delivery service. Stamp mills, sawmills and other businesses, every new building that went up meant more hauling. Would Newt have enough time to woo the new woman in his life or would she become a victim of the going-ons in Joe as well.
But there were more challenges than anyone could have imagined, way more! Thugs, cut-throats and thieves had to be dealt with as well as a rouge grizzly, and he was not an ordinary bear. He was closer to a bear and a half. On their first encounter, Newt became the hunted and he knew that the bear would have to be dealt with. He recalled stories told to him by his Cherokee Wise Man Grandfather, his Mother as well as his Mountain Man Dad. After hearing stories related by legendary Mountain Man Jim Bridger, and receiving his Dad’s Crow Medicine Man bear fetish from him, it became clear to Newt what path he should take. There may be more to the legends and myths than he had thought. As for the thugs, Newt’s Dad had instilled plenty of sand in him, but the odds were not always even and no one could foresee every ambush. Newt would have to be up on his game just to have a fighting chance, and more than a little lucky to boot.
Saddle up and skin out with us on a thrilling adventure in the High Lonesome of wild Colorado.