Sam Flint

It’s 1877, and all over the West, frontier towns have sprung up, drawing those in search of new beginnings after the Civil War. The young community of Payday is a paradise of rolling meadows and balmy skies, with a quiet population of ranchers and merchants. Into this Eden comes young editor Sam Flint, whose fledgling newspaper, the Payday Pioneer, earns him friends within the town and trumpets Payday’s glories throughout the West.

An editor is popular only if he can keep a secret, and Sam Flint’s new home of Oro Blanco has more than its share. Flint chooses this small frontier town, the site of the richest gold strike in the New Mexico Territory, to launch his newest weekly newspaper, the Oro Blanco Nugget. As soon as he hits town, however, Flint can tell that something is not right, as the atmosphere in Oro Blanco is thick with signs of corruption and injustice.

Sam Flint is a dedicated frontier journalist whose only weapon is the truth. But when he pulls into Silver City to set up his crusading weekly newspaper, he fears he's made a mistake. The over-populated town is being run into the ground by the corrupt editor of the Silver City Democrat, Digby Westminster. A friend of merchants and flatterer of politicians, the manipulative scoundrel has grown fat ridiculing the miners and working girls while making sure they are ruthlessly taxed into destitution.