Showing results by author "Gary McCarthy" in All Categories

Two Colorado cowboys searching for strayed cattle during a harsh snow storm discover the remains of an ancient city built into the side of a huge cliff. It is the ruined city of the Anasazi Indians, a civilization lost for over a thousand years. This is the story of how Mesa Verde, the cliff city, came to be. It is A.D. 400 at the Animus river Valley in what is now Northwestern New Mexico, and Echata, the leader of the Raven Clan, was concerned for his people.

In a land where justice was found in the barrel of a gun and the line between outlaw and citizen was thinly drawn, two women struggled, fought, and won. Rebecca, the elder, beautiful and defiant, found herself in the majestic mountains of Utah, forced to marry a brutal polygamist. All she wanted was to become a physician - and a free woman. Katie, younger, innocent, passionate, risked her life so her sister might have a chance for freedom. She risked all to establish a sprawling sheep ranch and prove that a woman could do it all - on her own.

America's richest legends come from the frontier - from the land where the events of a single moment might erase the lines between law and lawlessness, between safety and mortal danger, between heroes and villains. The carefully selected stories in this collection are vibrant proof that the great American West is a fertile ground to storytellers. Here's the most varied collection of short stories, by 17 highly acclaimed Western writers.

Darby Buckingham, the portly New York writer, had an appetite for local color to add punch to his newest dime novel. But when Hench Hightower rode into town with his half-dead herd of mustangs, Darby had no stomach for what he saw. It was time to end a vicious cattle baron's control of the Nevada range...time to end the murder of the mustangs. Darby looked like a dude, but he'd fight like a demon. Caught up in a stampeding adventure, Buckingham swore he'd live to tell the tale.

Here is the bold adventure story of William Dunn, an educated man yet an accomplished mountain man. His life becomes forever entwined with the wild, unforgettable, Grand Canyon. He hires on as a guide for the John Wesley Powell historic expedition into the Grand Canyon, but then leaves the expedition to guide two men back to civilization.

For young Quinn Wallace, reaching the land called Yellowstone was a quest he would rather die for than abandon. For the courageous woman who fell in love with him, it was a reason to surrender everything she once held dear. Pursued by her vengeful husband, the lovers fought their way into the mythical land, and then fought to stay.

Wild mustangs, ghosts on the ranch, gun-toting outlaws and trailblazing cowboys roam the pages of this collection of 8 classic stories about the American frontier. Travel down "The Road to Hell" with a mysterious ranch builder, face down the "Yellow Devil" mountain lion, travel "Where the Wind Blows Free," and join in on a herd of other adventures that will keep you reading until long after high noon.

For many bold pioneers headed west, the sweetest sight of all was the Humboldt River, a crooked ribbon of silver snaking through Nevada into California. But to Libby Pike and her family, the Humboldt brought sudden disaster. Stranded with her young daughter, Libby found herself surrounded by hostile renegades and an unforgiving wilderness. Then she stumbled upon a father and his two sons in search of a dream valley where they could settle and prosper.

When the rest of the West was already won... the mountains remained unspoiled and deadly. The men and women who tamed this savage land were tough, lawless, and when necessary, as mean as the traps they carried. They lived by a private code of proud honor and swift justice. Burly, broad-shouldered Isaac Beard is the living embodiment of that mountain code. To survive, he will have to fight his way to a safe haven near Spirit Lake in the Colorado upcountry....

In the wake of disaster, the surviving members of the Ballou family sought a new beginning on the Texas Frontier. A minister and his family become their traveling companions. Tragedy strikes when the minister and his young daughter are attacked by rattlesnakes and severely bitten. Their lives depend on the only medical attention available, that of a Comanche medicine man. And it is up to Ruff to persuade the reluctant Comanches to give them aid.

In Our American West, Volume 1, discover humor, tragedy, and courage in every one of these delightful stories. Gary McCarthy has been writing about the American West for 30 years and these are some of his favorite topics written - not for the expert or scholar - but for all the armchair admirers of thing historically written.

The hat fit him, the tin star didn't. But when his pal, Sheriff Zeb Cather, was taken out of action, Darby Buckingham started playing lawman to the town of Running Springs, Wyoming. And the town sure needed him now, the gun-slick honchos of neighboring Snakegrass Junction were determined to blast Running Springs out of existence. Darby was a man of fierce loyalties and fiercer courage.

Bruin Henry's not proud of the life he's led. Robbing stagecoaches cost him the love and devotion of his daughter. Along the way, he's been blamed for worse crimes - namely, cold-blooded murder. Ironically, the man who rode with him the day of the botched robbery and who is truly responsible is none other than his very own son-in-law, Link Cochran.

Darby Buckingham was an unlikely candidate for frontier life. From his round-toed shoes to his derby hat, he was a man of culture, a creature of comfort, who liked his gourmet restaurants and expensive cigars. The short, stocky New Yorker made a fortune writing dime novels about the old west.

Haunted by the blood and bitterness of the Civil War, Houston Ballou escaped from Tennessee on the proud stallion High Fire, followed by his brother, Ruff; his sister, Dixie; and the last four mares from the Ballou farm, one of them heavy with foal. Threatened with extreme danger from either army, they head west to start a new life. Adding to their peril are deserters that stalk the roads. These men would kill for a few coins, more so for valuable horseflesh.

Irish immigrant Michael Callahan gets the gold fever and stakes a claim in California. Just when persistence and ingenuity finally payoff, he is jumped by thieves intent upon taking his gold and his life. Michael is saved by Joaquin Murieta with whom he strikes up a friendship. The friendship is quite unusual and the Irishman becomes known as the Gringo Amigo.

The thundering engines of the Central Pacific are stalled in the quest to conquer the mighty Sierras. Only a mountain of a man, Darby Buckingham, could pound the railroad through the granite walls of trouble. Atop sheer rock cliffs just a death plunge away from the surging river a thousand feet below, braving punishing cold, Darby must lay down track, foot by hard-blasted foot, with a construction crew that is threatening to tear itself apart with vicious fighting.

Darby Buckingham becomes the unwilling owner of a herd of 12 dirty and disagreeable camels. Deciding to go into the freight business, Darby is faced with unfriendly Paiutes, scorching desert and steep, impassable trails. Add to that the horrors contrived by the murderous band of a competitor, an ugly giant known as Big Bert Jasper, and you have all the makings of an exciting story. The Derby Man will be hard pressed to come out ahead on this caper.

A man could mine fabulous wealth on the Comstock, but Darby Buckingham strikes only a mother lode of trouble. With his sledgehammer fists and sharply honed wits, Darby sets out to expose a spellbinding stock manipulator. Rigging a boxing match that becomes a nightmare of punishment, sabotaging a mine shaft into a pit of death - Darby's rattle-snake of an opponent baits him ruthlessly.

Look sharp, hit hard - that's the Derby Man's style. He's a fast-moving mountain of muscle who throws himself into the thick of the West's greatest adventures - like the Pony Express, a grueling 2,000 mile race through hell. The pace and terrain are deadly enough but vengeful Paiute warriors and murdering saboteurs led by a sadistic giant threaten to turn the route into a trail of blood. Then one man with the guts to save the Pony Express stepped forward - the Derby Man.