Mountain men and fur traders were the first to travel the route that would one day become the Oregon Trail. In their wake came missionaries who wrote letters and reports describing the far side of the continent and praising the mild climate, healthful conditions and the deep, fertile soil.Historians recognize 1843 as the official beginning of the Oregon Trail.That spring a group of a thousand land-hungry pioneers with 120 wagons and 5,000 head of cattle departed from Elm Grove, Mis...

At the 1911 Pendleton Round-Up, the Saddle Bronc Championship of the Northwest came down to three men of different skin colors - Jackson Sundown, a Nez Perce Indian, John Spain, a white man from pioneering stock, and George Fletcher, an African American. Red. White. Black.What happened that September Day in 1911 - the judges' decision and the reaction of the crowd in the aftermath - forever changed our history, and the way the sport of rogeo, and the emerging West, was to look at it...

Early-day women of the West are depicted in fading photographs: a gaunt, bonneted figure in a long dress walking beside a wagon, baby cradled in her arms, children scattered behind, a woman, looking older than her years, stirring lye soap over an open fire, a dancehall girl on stage, miners watching her every move....Letters and diaries tell the details of these women's existence, the sorrow of being uprooted from family and friends, the yearning for companionship of other women, b...

A Promise Given is a nonfiction book dealing with the many diverse issues each of us must face at various points during our lifetimes: love, loss, the complexities of growing old, and how each of us has the opportunity to directly effect the environment in which we live.This fast-paced narrative quickly pulls the reader into a Northwest setting and the time period surrounding World War II. Trevor Russell enlists in the service and returns home to attend college and become an elemen...

Through bravery, courage and strength of character these men and women stood head and shoulders above their contemporaries.They are our true Western American Heroes.

Great-grandfather has witnessed so much change in his life. When he was a boy the horse and buggy was the mode of transportation. He has lived to see aviation progress from a few barnstorming pilots hop-scotching across the country to jet aircraft thundering across the sky. And he was sitting there that day, in front of the television, when men walked on the moon. All the years and hard work have taken their toll but when he is seated in his favorite rocking chair, great-grandchildren scat...

BIG FRANK BATTLE LEANED AN ELBOW AGAINST THE HOOD OF HIS battered, flatbed truck and gazed with arrogant pride over his empire: his secluded valley, his sprawling ranch, his livestock. He had not the slightest inkling that before this particular morning played itself out, his body would fail him, the power he loved to wield so fiercely would crumble to dust and all the ugly secrets he had managed to keep hidden these many years would be laid bare to the world. A blood clot, a puny thing sm...

Lew Minor was a bronc-buster who chased wild horses across the vast reaches of Nevada, a buckaroo who rode rough-string and broke cavalry remounts, and a cowboy star who won rodeos throughout the West and Canada. He toured the nation with the famous Kit Carson Wild West Show as the featured attraction and won the world champion bronc rider belt buckle at the 1912 Pendleton Round-Up.Years were spent chasing an elusive dream - finding the best bucking horse over the next ridge - unti...

The men who ride the open range of the far West are known under a variety of names: vaquero, range rider, mustanger and buckaroo, but the name most commonly known is cowboy. The nature of a cowboy's work demands independence and toughness. He is a man of action; yet the long, lonely hours spent in the saddle provide ample time to develop a unique outlook on life. Simply put, a cowboy's tenet is, 'What cannot be cured is endured.' And endured with cheerfulness and good humor. It is far bett...

"Lew Minor was a bronc-buster who chased wild horses across the vast reaches of Nevada, a buckaroo who rode rough-string and broke cavalry remounts, and a cowboy star who won rodeos throughout the West and Canada. He toured the nation with the famous Kit Carson Wild West Show as the featured attraction and won the world champion bronc rider belt buckle at the 1912 Pendleton Round-Up.Years were spent chasing an elusive dream - finding the best bucking horse over the next ridge - unt...

Caught in the Crosshairs - a true story of the perfect murder, almost.... On the last day of summer in 1994, while cowboy Phil Brooks was riding in the hills of Eastern Oregon, he was struck through the heart by a bullet fired from a high-powered rifle. An intensive police investigation was launched, but nobody has ever stood trial for that murder. Some locals speculate a woman was involved, or the young cowboy happened upon a drug drop, while others are convinced Phil's death had somethin...

"Sir Francis Drake, the daring English pirate, was the first European to sail the stormy North Pacific. ln 1579, after having raided the Spanish settlements of South America, he sought to escape up the coast through an inland waterway that would return his ship, the Golden Hind, to the Atlantic Ocean.In his wake came other explorers. They soon concluded a Northwest Passage did not exist and turned their attention to exloiting the natural resources of the region. Trade was initiated...