Nelson Story arrives in a gold mining town in Montana, where a fruit pie sells for five dollars and people eat elk or worn-out oxen, and wagers a thousand dollars that he’ll do the seemingly impossible. To serve the hungry, poorly served, gold-rich market, he’ll drive A THOUSAND TEXAS LONGHORNS in 1866 on a cattle drive from Texas to Montana.
The desperadoes on the trail are just one hazard; also the covetous men of Missouri and Kansas, and the Cherokees and Sioux who know the plains and mountains like their own hands. With echoes of the recent conflict still ringing, a man finds it hard to be sure he can trust new hires. Not alone that, but some of the cowboys on the roads are women, finding breeches and rough hats safer, and they have been known to kill men in self defence.
This sweeping old-time western isn’t for the faint of heart, nor those who’d rather imagine people took a bath and washed their clothing. We’re put right on that from the start. Mason Boone is one of the wanderers who decides to take up with Storey, just as that man is leaving his wife Ellen in town while he heads off to Texas. Ellen is the kind of sympathetic woman we’d picture as the foundation of a civilised town. Molly McDonald is calling herself Mickey as she does a man’s work, and she aids a fellow traveller, Constance Beckett, who is wanted on suspicion of killing her brutal abductor. There’s also a journalist for the Montana Post, and a new doctor in town. Down in Dallas, just waiting for a new opportunity, is Mexican trail cook José Pablo Tsoyio. Quite a variety of folks populate these pages.
We also see some locales in their early days, such as Fort Worth, devoid of a fort and with no streets, just one road past the courthouse to the West Fork of the Trinity River. And we learn the mechanics of long-distance trail drives; one cowboy per hundred head, plus trail boss, cook, and wrangler with a remuda of horses, several per cowboy. The pay has to be sufficient to entice the men on a year-long endeavour, in which they won’t get paid until arrival in Montana and will then be months from home. Some men, though, are wanted in Texas (for rustling and other crimes) and Montana sounds rather appealing. Hazards include flooded rivers, stampedes, lightning, and locust swarms that even eat cotton clothing. They were brave in those days. Johnny D Boggs has paid homage to real people in his fictionalised account of the true trail drive of A THOUSAND TEXAS LONGHORNS. Believe it or not.
A powerful, trailblazing adventure inspired by the harrowing true story of the1866 cattle drive from Texas to Montana—and the legendary man who dared the impossible . . .
A THOUSAND TEXAS LONGHORNS
The Civil War is over. The future of the American West is up for grabs. Any man crazy enough to lead a herd of Texas longhorns to the north stands to make a fortune—and make history. That man would be Nelson Story. A bold entrepreneur and miner, he knows a golden opportunity when he sees one. But it won’t be easy. Cowboys and bandits got guns, farmers got sick livestock, and the Army’s got their own reasons to stop the drive. Even worse, Story’s top hand is an ornery Confederate veteran who used to be his enemy. But all that is nothing compared to the punishing weather, the deadly stampedes—and the bloodthirsty wrath of the Sioux…
This is the incredible saga of a man named Story. A true legend of the Old West. And the ever-beating heart of the American Dream.
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