After making a harrowing 700-mile journey, alone and on foot, from the Sweetwater River in Wyoming to Fort Atkinson on the Missouri River, and finding a home in the fur trade, young Sam Morgan is becoming a solid man.
For all its page-turning action, Beauty for Ashes is the unforgettable story of a boy who becomes a man by necessity in the cruel, beautiful, unexplored wilderness of the Old West.
Followed closely by Coy, his coyote pup, and trapping with a brigade of mountain men, Sam seeks more than furs and wealth. He is searching for the love of his life, the Crow Indian woman Meadowlark. With his companions—the French-Canadian Gideon Dubois, the mulatto Jim Beckwourth, and the Pawnee Third Wing—he heads for the Wind River country and the village of Meadowlark’s people.
Trapping beaver was dollars and adventure for mountain men in the Rocky Mountain West of the 1820s—the luxuriant, sought-after pelts could make a man rich. But it was a dangerous way to make a living: winter blizzards, hostile Indians, sickness, and starvation lurked at every point of the compass. Only a special brand of person could survive it all.
Sam is put to every test in his journey to the Crow village: fights with Pawnee, Lakota and Blackfeet, captivity and escape from a Sioux camp, buffalo hunts, and the distrust of Meadowlark’s family and tribe. He endures the sweat lodge and Sun Dance ceremonies that test his beliefs and self-confidence, and concocts a last-ditch, daring, and foolhardy scheme to win Meadowlark’s hand.
Reviews
“Win Blevins has long since won his place among the West’s very best.” – Tony Hillerman
“Sam’s adventures are vibrant, making this a rousing installment in a fine epic of the American frontier.” – Publisher’s Weekly
“The glory years of frontier life, fresh and rich.” —Kirkus Reviews
“An entertaining, vivid portrait of frontier America as seen through the eyes of an impressionable youth.” — Booklist
“Rendezvous is a classic series that will be on college reading lists in history classes studying the fur trading era.” – ROUNDUP Magazine Reader Reviews