Our American West: Volume 2: A Western Adventure Series

by Gary McCarthy

Our American West, Volume II begins with America’s first colonizers, the 'prairie dogs', and how out on the ranges they were so hated by ranchers that they were almost made extinct. 'Conestoga Wagons' were once called “prairie schooners” crossing America long before the famed 'Pony Express'. The indomitable courage of 'Sarah Winnemucca', the “Paiute Princess” rivals that of a tall Swede named 'Snowshoe Thompson' who skied the snowy winter passes of the Sierra Nevadas for over twenty years packing the mail and saving lives. Almost no one knows of Esther Hobart Morris, but Wyoming proudly claims her as its 'Mother of Women’s Suffrage'.In this exciting volume you will marvel at the 'transcontinental railroad race' between the Union Pacific’s Chinese laborers and the predominantly Irish Central Pacific Railroad crews and about how a one-armed Civil War hero named 'John Wesley Powell' was the first explorer to run the mighty Grand Canyon deep within its corridors of stone. Doctors were often called “sawbones” and not without good reason as they struggled to save their patients with little more than poultices and prayers. 'Tom Horn' was a tall and handsome hired gun, but did he hang for a killing he did not even commit? And how about the often ridiculed 'mules' - are they really smarter than horses? 'Billy the Kid' was a natural born killer, however 'Clay Allison' was every bit as deadly and you’ll hear some stories about the famed fast draw was it a case of 'Myths but Mostly Misses'? Few tales of our Native Americans are more moving that the Cherokee and their “Trail of Tears” and the great 'Chief Sitting Bull' was one of the last of the America’s storied Native American “Horseback Fighters of the Plains” to surrender. The United States Army’s 'Buffalo Soldiers' did more than prove their worth on the lawless frontier and 'The Ghost Dancers' had nothing less than extermination on their minds. 'Mark Twain' survived a perilous stagecoach ride to the West then went on to fame as did 'Frederick Remington', yet both returned to the East. Why? 'The Infamous Bandit Queens' were Belle Starr, a wild and wicked woman and Pearl Hart, who robbed the last stagecoach in the West and was sent to the dreaded Yuma Territorial Prison then disappeared forever, only to reappear on these pages of Our American Volume 2.

123 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 28, 2015

About the author

Gary McCarthy is the author of fourteen American historical novels and thirty-four westerns published by many of New York's major publishing houses. He has over three million books in print and continues to research and write his Canyon Country novels.

Growing up with horses and living in California, Nevada and Arizona, Gary is well suited to writing about the American West. He received his B.S. degree in Animal Science and an M.S. in Agricultural Economics. He has a keen interest in Native American cultures, especially the Hopi, Navajo, Havasupai and Haulapai who live in Northern Arizona.

Gary and his wife Jane live in Arizona and have often ridden horses and hiked in the Kaibab and Coconino National Forests. Gary is always looking for new stories set in the American West and considers the research to be among his most favorite pursuits.