Under Western Skies

By Burr Cook

A novelette about a family who travels with a wagon train to Colorado in search of gold. They follow the South Platte to Thompson Creek where they make their new home. The daughter falls in love with the wagon master who turns out to have a reputation as a gunfighter. They eventually strike it rich but the gunfighter gets in trouble with a sheriff and narrowly escapes a hanging by a rowdy posse.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 20, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312370739

Book preview

Under Western Skies

Under Western Skies

Copyright 2013 Burr Cook

All rights reserved

ISBN:  978-1-312-37073-9

Chapter I The Journey’s End

"There's a gold mine in the sky far away

We will find it, you and I some sweet day

There'll be clover just for you down the line

Where the skies are always blue, pal of mine

Take your time, ole mule

I know you're growing lame

But you'll pasture in the stars,

When we strike that claim

And we'll set up there and watch

The world roll by

When we find that long lost gold mine

In the sky, far away, far away we will find that

Long lost gold mine some sweet day

And we'll say hello to friends who said goodbye

When we find that long lost gold mine

In the sky, far away, far away"

–Pat Boone

All twenty wagons made it to Denver City without incident. Before starting out they had been warned that it would be wise to wait for a larger party to travel with but the men were in the grip of what was called gold fever. They had left the main Overland Trail system to follow the South Platte River to Denver. They came from various eastern cities after the ending of the war between the northern and southern states.

They were encamped outside of Denver city where they planned to disband the wagon train and go their separate ways. Calvin Grant, the wagon master, sat by his camp fire partially day dreaming and partially night dreaming. He had just crossed the Great Plains for the fifth time and was thinking of looking for a different way to make a living. He was nearly forty years old now and tired of traveling. Cal - as his friends called him – had some mining experience so he would have no trouble finding work. He had met a family on the trail by the name of Rathbone and was especially interested in the daughter, Sally. She was beautiful beyond words. He was reminded of her as he watched the sun set over the Rocky Mountains.

Cal also got along well with her parents and had spent considerable time with her father Jeb. He had taught Jeb many useful tricks of the west including the use of fire arms. They had become good friends although Jeb was about ten years older. But Cal was mostly interested in Sally who was twelve years younger than himself. She was well schooled and somewhat shy she made him feel like the bird he watched gliding through the fiery sky to the west. He had spent a lot of time with her and even thought he might be in love although he didn’t think she felt the same. At any rate they had become good friends during the journey taking many walks together just talking about their very different past lives and sometimes holding hands. It broke up the boredom of the endless plains. They had both rejoiced upon seeing the mountains rising up out of the distant horizon