Julesburg Public Library

In the fall of 1873, a wagon train of immigrants sets off from Missouri for the Montana Territory. Leading them is wagon master Jamie Ian MacCallister, a giant of a man who swears he can get them there by Christmas. The journey is plagued by brutal storms and rugged terrain, outlaws and hostile Indians. Just when things look nearly hopeless, two unlikely saviors arrive: an old mountain man known as Preacher and legendary frontiersman Smoke Jensen....

"Settling the American West required true grit, fortitude, and when necessary, shedding blood. It also required men like Preacher and MacCallister to enforce peace in a land where the law was scarce--and justice was delivered from the barrel of a gun... Wagon trains carrying immigrants along the Oregon Trail are falling prey to outlaws. Most families surrender their valuables and goods peacefully, but anybody brave enough to resist gets a bullet....

During a thirteen hundred mile journey from Kansas to the Bitterroot Mountains, Caleb O'Toole faces deserts, tornadoes, wolves, and the infamous Blackstone Gang as he tries to honor his promise to his dying mother and keep his sisters safe.

Based on true events, this compelling survival story by award-winning novelist Jane Kirkpatrick is full of grit and endurance. 1844. The Stevens-Murphy company left Missouri to be the first wagons into California through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Mostly Irish Catholics, the party sought religious freedom and education in the mission-dominated land. When a heavy snowstorm hits in October, the party separates in three directions. Now young Mary Sullivan,...

"When sixteen-year-old Matt Logan and his friend Danny Dugan ran away from an orphanage, they went west. There, they met Jim Bridger, among other mountain men, and became fur trappers. But the market for beaver plews died out, and the two friends took on jobs as wagon train guides. They eventually separated, hoping to meet again. One of the trains Matt picks up in Independence began its journey in St. Louis, led by widower Cody McNair. Cody was a...

Ten-year-old Emmy Blue learns the true meaning of friendship--and how to quilt--while making a harrowing wagon journey from Illinois to Colorado with her family in the 1860s.

"Upon uncovering her tyrannical father's malevolent plot to commit her to an asylum, Beth Rutledge fabricates a plan of her own. She will rescue her mother, who had already been sent to the asylum, and escape together on a wagon train heading west. Posing as sisters, Beth and her mother travel with the pioneers in hopes of making it to Idaho before the others start asking too many questions. Wagon-train scout Jake Holt senses that the mysterious...

One man. One town. One Destiny.

"The story of a Civil War soldier finding his humanity in the face of horrible savagery. Emerging from the Civil War a shamed and broken man, Stephen Latch turns to a life of thievery and murder. Still hoping to uphold the values of the Confederacy, Latch sets his sights on the wealth of resources pouring westward from the northern United States, putting together a band of ruthless misfits to help him stake his claim of the riches of the caravans....

In this captivating Western novel, a wagon train scout runs afoul of a band of Apaches, who are determined to hunt him down, no matter the cost. The scout, who they dub "Shadow," turns the tables, and the Apaches become the hunted, as well as the hunters. This suspenseful tale captures the dust and grit of the trail and the fear and danger that faced both emigrants and native peoples during the uncivilized days of the Old West.