High Mountain Winter

by Ardath Mayhar

Based on a True Story of a Pioneer Woman's Courage! Written by Western Writers of America Spur Award finalist, Ardath Mayhar, High Mountain Winter is a gripping novel with the ring of truth, because it actually happened. Left alone in a covered wagon in the most desolate, snow-bound mountains in the US, a young woman survives all that nature can throw at her. Here is how the author describes the genesis of this stunning novel. "With the westward journey of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman in 1836, expansion of the United States to the Pacific began in earnest. That first trek proved both women and wagons could make the almost two-thousand-mile migration, and by 1850 the ruts were already worn deep. Starting at either Westport Landing, Missouri, which was later to be named Kansas City, nearby Independence, or at Kanesville, Iowa, now Council Bluffs, the emigrants set off across the plains toward their goals. In 1848, unsuccessful revolutions took place in several kingdoms of Europe, and . displaced people fled the turmoil of their own country and went west to America. Heat and cold, dust and floods and catastrophes didn't stop their progress across the wide land. Those spared by cholera and accidents and occasional Indian raids became the ancestors of at least some of those now living in the West. Maryla Stoner's winter sojourn is based upon an actual occurrence. There was, indeed, a young woman who survived a high mountain winter, all alone in a covered wagon, after her father and brothers went away to hunt and failed to return. Now go with me and follow the Oregon Trail, in 1850, with the last wagon train to leave Westport Landing before the season was too far along to allow safepassage. Meet the assortment of people who set their faces toward the setting sun, in pursuit of a dream that our kind has never quite lost." Ardath Mayhar lives on a ranch in East Texas.

Nook

First published March 1, 1996

About the author

Ardath Frances Hurst Mayhar was an American writer and poet. She began writing science fiction in 1979 after returning with her family to Texas from Oregon. She was nominated for the Mark Twain Award, and won the Balrog Award for a horror narrative poem in Masques I.

She had numerous other nominations for awards in almost every fiction genre, and won many awards for poetry. In 2008 she was honored by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as an Author Emeritus.

Mayhar wrote over 60 books ranging from science fiction to horror to young adult to historical to westerns; with some work under the pseudonyms Frank Cannon, Frances Hurst, John Killdeer, Ardath P. Mayhar. Joe R. Lansdale wrote simply: "Ardath Mayhar writes damn fine books!"

Reviews

[Luckngrace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love that this story was adapted from a true story and journals of the time. It would make a great movie. These pioneers faced cholera, bears, freezing temperatures and mud, Indians and dangerous fellow travelers, just to name a few. When the story ended Mrs. Mayhar gave us a sample of how her own family coped with moving from Texas to Oregon in the 1960s. She, also, had much adversity and needed every ounce of persistence to cross those mountains. I wonder if anyone alive today has the courage and forebearance to live as the pioneers lived.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A unique and fresh tale of lives of the early settlers of the West, with a balanced view of the perspectives of the Native Americans and the emigrants.