The Hunger (G.P. Putnam & Sons, $27) by Alma Katsu takes the tragic tale of the Donner Party and infuses it with hin…
Should I Stay or Should I Go? Review of Matthew P. Mayo's Stranded: A Story of Frontier Survival.
Stranded: A Story of Frontier Survival (Five Star Publishing, $25.95) by Matthew P. Mayo is a novel crafted around Janet…
Jersey Argonauts Review of Margaret Casterline Bowen and Gwendolyn Joslin Hiles's Jersey Gold: The Newark Overland Company's Trek to California, 1849.
The 1848 discovery of gold on the American River by New Jerseyan James W. Marshall set off an international migration. J…
A Babe on the Battlefield How a tenacious mother saved her daughter during one of the deadliest massacres in U.S. history.
The horrified woman ran with all her heart through chaotic, thunderous reports of carbines, rifles and pistols that were…
On to Oregon Washington State University Press, $29.95
The adventurous and restless souls who risked all to go West were compelled by those qualities to redraw and improve “tr…
Raining Bricks and Shooting Citizens The survivors who navigated through an “end of the world” crisis during California’s deadly earthquake and fire.
In 1906, San Francisco, was one of the jewels of the American West. The California boomtown of the 1850s had grown into …
Gambling with Men’s Lives The Pathfinder’s narrow escape.
By 1848, John C. Frémont was a national hero. He had led three expeditions into the Great American Desert, and his maps …
Lost in the Wilderness A tax assessor must find a way to survive after his vacation in Yellowstone goes horribly wrong.
In 1870, descriptions of the natural wonders from the Yellowstone area were often seen as fantasy. Truman C. Everts, age…
Outrunning the Apaches A novice scout runs for his life during Geronimo’s reign of terror in the Arizona wilderness.
In the Arizona wilderness of 1881, 20-year-old courier Frederick Russell Burnham knew that the assignment from Neil McLe…
Shot on the Fourth of July A gold field celebration turns dangerous for one California miner.
Miners are notorious for a lifestyle of hard work, at times peppered with harder play. Alfred T. Jackson was a Nutmegger…