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Land holds the stories of people, their legends, and their history. Yellowstone National Park is an extraordinary tale of people and the earth through time and this travel guide goes with you along the journey. Learn about the Indians who lived or traveled through Yellowstone, as well as the mountain men who were the first white people to discover Yellowstone, the government explorers who mapped it and fought to make it a park, the poachers and other explorers--foreign and domestic, high-born and low-born, who sojourned here. You will be led through all the travails, thrills, dramas, and serene satisfactions of the people over the park's history. Easy and enjoyable to read, this travel guide allows you to begin at whichever of the five park entrances you use and follow the park's story as you follow the road.

One of the few first-hand accounts of the West before white people arrived. A must read for American history buffs and anyone interested in the adventures and lives of the original Mountain Men. Captain Sir William Drummond Stewart, Scotland's baronet of Murthly, was an enthusiastic adventurer with a deep curiosity about the untamed Western United States. He spent seven years exploring the American West, far ahead of the first white settlers. He traveled in the company of the legendary trappers Jim Bridger, Tom Fitzpatrick, William Sublette and many others. This is a novel of his travels. The book, 'Edward Warren' is an intriguing, romantic, odd, and fascinating tale of the Rocky Mountain Fur trade told by Stewart. Originally Stewart offered up EDWARD WARREN as a novel. He then appended the book as a 'fictitious autobiography.' And that is the value to modern readers, both those who are already in love with the wild mountain men, and those looking for a peek inside this world. It is now, back in print, after almost 150 years in obscurity. 'Edward Warren' is a true picture of his companions, the mountain men, and their trade, the fabled beaver trade of the Rock Mountains, and is drawn from real life. As such, it is an invaluable eye-witness account. Stewart went west in 1833 while the beaver trade was still in its heyday. He traveled with the fur men, fought and befriended Indians with them, had Indian women as companions, and endured the hardships of the camp and trail with them. Stewart attended every Rendezvous from 1833 to 1838, bridging the high years to the low ones, when the beaver market plummeted. After going home to assume his titles and estates, Stewart went back to the West ... it called to him. It was 1843 and was to be his farewell journey. He found the mountain men poor, dispersed, beaten. Stewart decided to spend a lot of money for one more rendezvous. A last hurrah. And, as it turned out, in that very summer, there came the first great wave of emigration that would destroy the nomadic, free life that Stewart treasured. During his time in and out of the mountains, Stewart hobnobbed in St. Louis with movers and shakers, like Kenneth McKenzie-the King of the Missouri, and William Clark of Lewis and Clark. Stewart traveled first to the mountains with Robt. Campbell. He rode with Tom Fitzpatrick, Jim Bridger, Bill Williams and Antoine Clement. Knew Kit Carson, Lucien Fontenelle, Doc Newell, Joe Meek, Andrew Drips, and Joe Walker-a who's who of the mountain trade. His sketches of these men are real. Bill Williams in blackened buckskins with bright red hair. Joe Meek, always the cut-up. Fontenelle the drinker. Carson the protector. Clement the ultimate hunter. In 'Edward Warren' Stewart has given us one of the few accounts of the mountain man's life with an eye-witness view. Stewart's adventures in the West left a profound impression on him. He loved the free mountain life, and he mourned the passing of the Indians and the great herds of buffalo. What Stewart has given us, in this 'fictionalized autobiography' is priceless. It is one of the few accounts of the mountain man's life from a man who lived it. It is a glory.

This is the autobiography of a man who traveled through early California and the Southwest in the 1800's. How did we find the story of James O. Pattie? Through a remarkable stroke of luck. An anonymous traveler passed through Cincinnati one day in 1830, and the local newspaper carried a story about him. The man was identified only as "a passenger who arrived yesterday from Vera Cruz," and the story contained a few of the man's vague, political comments about Mexico. Had they taken the time to interview him, his stories would have filled an entire newspaper. His name was James O. Pattie, and he had just returned from wandering in the almost unknown territory between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean. But, at a bookstore on Main Street, the owner Timothy Flint, was interested in Pattie's stories. Flint, once a missionary and minister, had given up religion in favor of writing, editing, and bookselling. By 1830 Flint was a well-known author, and he was particularly interested in the West. Josiah Johnston, the US senator from Louisiana, shared that interest and he had arrived in Cincinnati just the day before. One month before landing in Cincinnati, Pattie was on his way home from California by way of Mexico. He was so broke that he couldn't keep going upriver to Kentucky. Senator Johnston heard of Pattie's trouble, and offered to pay his fare on the same steamboat he was taking to Cincinnati. Once there, the senator introduced young Mr. Pattie to the bookstore owner and writer, Timothy Flint. Pattie sailed back home to Augusta, Kentucky, but one year later he went back to Cincinnati and the bookstore. Work began on this narrative, and was published one year later. Here you have the first-hand account of a daring and brash young man who set off into the unknown and brought back a treasure chest of tales. Enjoy! General Editor of Mountain Man Classics, Win Blevins, has received the Owen Wister Award for lifetime achievement in writing about the West. He has also been inducted into the Western Writer's Hall of Fame. "Win Blevins has long since won his place among the West's very best." Tony Hillerman on 'Give Your Heart to the Hawks.' "Blevins possesses a rare skill in masterfully telling a story to paper. He is a true storyteller in the tradition of Naïve people." Lee Francis, Native American Studies, UNM "Blevins shows us the glory years of frontier life, fresh and rich." Kirkus Reviews on a book from Win's Rendezvous Series, 'Beauty for Ashes' "One of the finest novels to come out of the American West in a long time. An amazing book, grandly conceived and beautifully written." Dallas Morning News on 'Stone Song, The Story of Crazy Horse.'

A Mountain Man ClassicThe River of the West is easily the most reliable and extensive first-person history ever written of that unique and never-to-be-duplicated era. An extraordinary first-hand account of those who came West and lived with the land. Of all the men who walked the Rocky Mountains a century and a half ago, none other is so completely alive as Joe Meek. This book has been described as a howling yawp of youth and vitality, challenge and danger, exultation and joy. It is all of that and more. Originally published in 1870, this book includes the original illustrations and offers a new introduction, map, notes, bibliography and index.In the first volume of 'The River of the West', The Mountain Years, we meet Joe Meek as a dashing and valiant trapper. In this second volume, The Oregon Years, with the help of his wife Joe comes to light as pioneer, sheriff, U.S. Marshall, and legislator.Through Meek's wondrous recollections, his memoir also becomes an important history of Oregon's formative years, and that of the entire Northwest United States. The struggles of women, Native Americans, missionaries, trappers, early settlers, explorers, and the Hudson's Bay company all shaped a territory, and finally a state.It is fact, but more than that. It's the truth of an era and place. As all good stories are, it is the blend of the objective and what is imaginatively implied about the days when giants roamed the raw West.The issues of life and death were often in the balance, and these were decided by the cool judgment of natural leaders--women and men, Native Americans and whites. Those leaders come through in folk literature as heroic. They were. They were also authentically human and worthy of admiration, flaws and all.Put together, it is the sort of historic memoir that we love, the sort that ennobles us.Editor Win Blevins is an expert on the fur trade era. He has written screenplays about the mountain men. His first book, "Give Your Heart to the Hawks," perhaps the best collection of mountain man adventures and stories, has been in print for forty years.He is the recipient of the 2015 Owen Wister award for lifetime achievement for Literature of the West. He is also in the Western Writers Hall of Fame."Win Blevins has long since won his place among the West's very best." Tony Hillerman on 'Give Your Heart to the Hawks.'"Blevins possesses a rare skill in masterfully telling a story to paper. He is a true storyteller in the tradition of Naïve people." Lee Francis, Native American Studies, UNM"Blevins shows us the glory years of frontier life, fresh and rich." Kirkus Reviews on "Beauty for Ashes" "One of the finest novels to come out of the American West in a long time. An amazing book, grandly conceived and beautifully written." Dallas Morning News on "Stone Song, The Story of Crazy Horse."

Historical characters, close calls, and good-natured fun abound in this light-hearted romp through the West with adventures worthy of Don Quixote. "Win Blevins is the best writer in America." --John Milius, screenwriter of 'Apocalypse Now' Here are two of the most improbable mountain men ever to trap and explore the Rocky Mountains. Shakespeare is a former actor, an older man of gargantuan proportion. His sidekick, Silk, is a rail-thin teenager with all the brains that Shakespeare lacks. They get into flabbergasting scrapes from wrestling bears, to falling in love with off-limits women in Santa Fe, a Crow woman warrior, and the porcelain-faced daughter of a trader. Silk and Shakespeare are fictional, but historical characters abound in this light-hearted romp through the west. Chief among these is Antelope Jim Beckwourth, the mulatto son of a Virginia plantation owner who became a warrior chief of the Crow Indians. Beckwourth's lover, Pine Leaf, was a legendary and very real woman-warrior of the Crows. This unlikely foursome gets into jams with dreaded enemies of the Crow and the Blackfeet. That's to be expected of characters who, like Don Quixote, dream of "enchantments, quarrels, battles, challenges, wounds, wooings, loves, tempests, and other impossible follies." Reviews "Blevins 'Silk and Shakespeare' brims with good-natured fun!" -- Publisher's Weekly "Win Blevins displays an antic imagination, not only in mingling actual and invented characters, but in melding gritty action-adventure with metaphysical musings." - Dale Wasserman, author of Man of La Mancha "Win Blevins is the best writer in America." --John Milius, screenwriter of 'Apocalypse Now' "I haven't had so much fun reading a book about the West in years." -George Roy Hill, director of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

"Beautiful. Blevins brings it all alive." - The Los Angeles Times This is the enthralling story of an authentic adventurer, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. He lived his dream in clashing cultures-that of Native American vitality and that of high European society. He mastered both worlds, but was ultimately forced to choose between them. The son of Sacajawea, guide for Lewis and Clark, Charbonneau was born on the adventure, and born to explore. As an infant, he infant traveled from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean and back, carried along in the expedition's boats or upon his mother's back. As a child, Sacajawea sent her son to William Clark. There Charbonneau was raised in Clark's posh society, had Jesuit schooling in St. Louis, and was later educated in Europe-he became the welcome guest of kings. Throughout his life, Charbonneau and Clark maintained an extraordinary relationship. Charbonneau became a cultured man, at ease in the gentile civilization of European courts. But he was a man of two dreams, and the Western wilderness pulled at his heart. Charbonneau became an American explorer, guide, fur trapper-trader, military scout during the Mexican-American War, alcalde (mayor) of Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, and a gold prospector and hotel operator in Northern California. He spoke French and English, and learned German and Spanish during his six years in Europe. He also spoke Shoshone and other western Native American languages, which he learned first from his family and then during his years of trapping and guiding. CHARBONNEAU is a novel of epic scope and lyric intensity, of vivid human drama and vigorous adventure! REVIEWS "A gripping historical novel . . . Blevins weaves authentic and documented material with the fruits of an impressive empathy. The characters live not only as recognizable people in their times and places, but as figures is an allegory of the West. There is some beautiful writing here. Blevins beings it all alive!" - Los Angeles Times "Blevins captures both Charbonneau's unique character and the full flavor of the American era in which he lived. From frontier hardships and the raw vigor of Native American life to the sensual and intellectual pleasures of high European society, 'Charbonneau' is a must-read novel of American resilience and intellect." The Denver Post

Blevins succeeds in weaving humor, zany characters, and the occult into an entertaining mystery with serious undertones." -Publisher's Weekly "... Meredith Blevins is a magician who changes words into music." Margaret Coel, NY Times Bestselling Author "Great plot and insight into Gypsy culture!" Library Journal, starred review.The spicy Szabo women would like to kick back with a lover, a good movie, and a few laughs, but life has something else in mind. One meeting with an extraordinary boy leads them headlong into another wild, and hair-raising, adventure.Annie Szabo has discovered a miracle-Jimmy Qi, a kid from Chinatown with the power to heal using music. He's dazzling, he's a scoundrel, he is sensitive, and he makes a great newspaper article. But now? Everyone wants Jimmy.Feeling responsible for creating San Francisco's latest hot commodity, Annie enlists her mother-in-law, the audacious fortune-teller Madame Mina, to help keep Jimmy safe from his avid pursuers: an evangelist; an ex-hero with a troubled past; the tongs; a CDC doctor; a dolphin fanatic; and an FBI agent who seems too good to be true.A set of aging twins with a vivid past and a dubious future offer Annie protection. The women have powerful alliances, and they like Annie's style. She has reservations, but after an afternoon spent slamming back Bombay Gin with the ladies, Annie accepts their help.And then the bodies start turning up. Annie grabs Jimmy and runs, luring the killer through a tangle of Chinese New Year celebrations and north, up the deserted California coast, where she and Madame Mina force the killer to face justice."A madcap dash through San Francisco's Chinatown and the crumbling Haight-Ashbury district with a cast of bona fide eccentrics!" Kirkus Reviews "The Red Hot Empress is witty, clever, and slyly wise-all at the same time. No doubt about it, Meredith Blevins is a magician who changes words into music." Margaret Coel, New York Times bestselling author of 'Wife of Moon'"A roller-coaster thrill-ride through San Francisco's Chinatown. Sexy, colorful, and just plain fun." Denise Hamilton, bestselling author of 'The Jasmine Trade.'

"Win Blevins, that master yarn-spinner, has done it again with 'The Rock Child.' A wonderfully wild one which you don't want to miss." - Tony Hillerman. "Packed with drama, adventure, humor, the lore of American Indians and Tibetan Buddhists, plus unforgettable historical characters, this book is a dazzling tour de force and a deeply moving story. A wild mythic novel of the American West. The climax would satisfy the Buddha himself!"- Library Journal An unlikely trio comprised of the Shoshone Indian Asie, a Tibetan nun, and Sir Richard Burton-the famous soldier and explorer-flees from the Utah Territory to California in 1862. The Destroying Angel of the Mormon Church, Porter Rockwell, pursues them relentlessly. The journey is jam-packed with unforgettable incidents and colorful characters, including a fledgling journalist named Mark Twain. In the end Asie discovers why he was named the Rock Child, what it means to be a man of color in America, what spiritual path will nurture him, who his people are, and the strength of love.Reviews"Blevins, whose book Stone Song fictionalized the life of the legendary Crazy Horse, has stated his aim is to write 'mythic novels of the American West.' He meets that goal in The Rock Child.The voices shift between an Indian-Anglo musical savant; Sun Moon, a virginal Tibetan nun shanghaied into American prostitution; and Sir Richard Burton, real-life explorer, linguist, and Arabian Nights translator. Joining Burton in rescuing Asie and Sun Moon from a dreadful fate is Mark Twain, a comedic catalyst that surprisingly few historical novelists have thought to exploit. Like Twain, Burton is well drawn. He's a cultivated, Sean Connery-type sinner who feels badly about his appetites, and the picaresque passages told from his perspective enliven this ambitious narrative." - Library Journal"A colorful novel set among the Mormons in 1862, featuring such real folks as Sam Clemens, Sir Richard Burton, Brigham Young, and Porter Rockwell, by the author of Stone Song, Win Blevins. Half-Indian Asie Taylor, a musical prodigy who has been accepted into the Church of the Latter-day Saints, drowns when his delivery wagon is overturned in a flash flood. He experiences an out-of-body experience, returns to life, and is amazed to see the scarred but beautiful face of Sun Moon above him. Sun is a Tibetan Buddhist nun who was kidnapped in Asia and shipped to America to be sold into prostitution. Tarim, the tavernkeeper who bought her, expects to resell her for a hefty sum."When Porter Rockwell, a Mormon known as the Destroying Angel (he seeks out and kills enemies of the church) buys Sun Moon, he attempts to satisfy his lust. Frustrated by his inability to do so, he disfigures her face. Sun Moon flees and falls in with Asie, who has decided to go in search of his origins and the meaning of his Shoshone name, Rock Child. Meanwhile, Rockwell is in pursuit of Sun Moon, determined to kill her-and anyone who gets in his way. "Tibetan-speaking Sir Richard Burton, a brilliant opium addict, is in Salt Lake City to persuade Brigham Young to form a separate Western Confederacy. Burton saves Asie and Sun Moon from Rockwell and joins their quest. For a while, Brigham Young gives them sanctuary from Rockwell, though Rockwell later follows the trio to San Francisco."'Life is a flabbergaster, ' says Asie Taylor, hero of Win Blevins's The Rock Child, a story that will flabbergast every reader who opens it. This is a rich, funny, fascinating, meaningful, and memorable novel from the author of that incredible masterpiece about Crazy Horse, Stone Song." -Rocky Mountain News"Win Blevins displays an antic imagination, not only in mingling actual and invented characters, but in melding gritty action-adventure with metaphysical musings." - Dale Wasserman, author of Man of La Mancha

From a three-time Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers Writer of the Year, this tale of lost faith and crowning redemption follows one American Indian's spirit journey to heal his past and claim his future. "RavenShadow has the impact of a hurled war lance." -Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Before he was born, Joseph Blue Crow was chosen to carry the sacred ways of the Sioux. But instead of walking the good Red Road of his people, he put his feet on the white man's road of basketball and booze, women and the blues. Haunted by the loss of his Lakota heritage and the inexplicable suicide of the woman he loves, Blue sinks into alcoholism and despair. He soon finds himself on the precipice of oblivion, a train roaring toward his car on the railroad tracks. Only his best friend's words can save him: "You got to go on the mountain." Blue's journey takes him on a tortuous path, guided by a shaman and a spirit bird under whose wing lies the shadow of the past. He relives the massacre of Wounded Knee, standing beside his family and his people as they fall under fire of guns and cannons. Blue seeks redemption and healing through the course of this extraordinary story. Reviews "RavenShadow has the impact of a hurled war lance." -Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee "Win Blevins has long since won his place among the West's very best. RavenShadow adds a new dimension to reputation." -Tony Hillerman "An outstanding novel that people from age eight to eighty should read. . . . [Blevins] is a true storyteller in the tradition of Native people." -Lee Francis, chair of the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers "Blevins' prose is razor sharp, his characters are clearly defined, and his heart, like so many, is at Wounded Knee. An outstanding novel." -Booklist "A strong, thoughtful story." -Kirkus Reviews "[RavenShadow] is destined to become an American classic. . . . [Blevins] raises the genre to a new level." -Roundup Magazine "Powerful and poetic." -Tulsa World "No one can come away from this magnificent work without feeling humble and meditative. . . . Blevins beautifully and skillfully merges the past and the present." -El Paso Times

In this fine sequel to her highly praised debut, The Hummingbird Wizard, Blevins blends a wild story, wonderful wit, and great characters."--Library Journal, which also named it ONE OF THE YEAR'S BEST FIVE MYSTERIES "If you don't fall in love with the Szabos, you don't have hormones. A sublime debut whose sequel can't come fast enough." --Kirkus Reviews on The Hummingbird Wizard THIS IS THAT SEQUEL! MADAME MINA'S BACK AND IT'S MORE FUN THAN THE CIRCUS-IN FACT, THAT'S HERE TOO... Half the fun of this one is the contentious relationship between freelance journalist Annie Szabo and her Gypsy mother-in-law, Madame Mina. When they stop arguing long enough to put their heads together, they make a crack team of amateur psychic sleuths. When they can't, they keep us in stitches. Unfortunately for Annie, Mina's come to stay-just up and parked her trailer in Annie's yard, right next to Annie's pet giraffes. We should explain: Annie's neighbor and good friend, Margo Spanger, is the owner-operator of a New Age circus that helps support a home for abused women. The giraffes, like other human and animal performers, just kind of spill over. Annie is heartbroken when Margo is murdered, but also frightened-her own daughter is an abused wife who's a resident of Margo's project, along with Annie's grandson. The plot thickens as quickly as a roux. Margo's partner, Lili, goes missing the day of Margo's death, causing the shelter to fall into disarray, thus threatening its residents. Okay, then- the detective team of Annie and Madame Mina swings into action! Aided by an ex-cop and Mina's plant medicine, Annie discovers Margo has rattled the power elite, a trapeze flier, one jealous lover, a captain of industry, a long-lost son, and an ice-blond philanthropist. As Annie delves into their surprisingly tangled lives, two things become clear: the killer is a master of disguise, and time is running out. It all makes for a fast, funny, and very original paranormal murder mystery. Who will like it: Fans of psychic mysteries and detectives, cozy mysteries that veer off into SEXY, and lovers of all humorous mysteries-funny cozies, playful paranormals, witty romantic suspense, and clever, quirky writing. Here's what reviewers and fellow authors said about THE HUMMINGBIRD WIZARD: "Meredith Blevins covers new literary ground...pulling it off with flair and grace and humor." ---Jonathan Kellerman "An exciting debut. Blevins has written a thoroughly original first novel with characters you'll never forget." ---Tony Hillerman "Fascinating gypsy lore, unforgettable characters, and a wicked sense of humor distinguish Blevins's highly unusual mystery debut....This stellar first, with its assured prose, will delight any mystery fan." ---Publishers Weekly (starred review) Blevins flavors her lively prose with frequent humor and unexpected twists; readers will also be drawn in by the riveting characters, great plot, and insights into Gypsy culture." "---Library Journal (starred review)