Spanish Peaks Library District

The author takes readers on a tour of the Land Down Under that goes far beyond packaged-tour routes, illustrating adventures with riptides, jellyfish, and Aborigines.

The sole survivors of an Indian massacre, Hardy, a seven-year-old boy, and three-year-old Betty Sue, face hunger, marauding Indians, outlaws, and wild animals as they attempt to cross the prairie to safety.

While traveling west with her family in 1850, a young girl makes a patchwork quilt chronicling the experiences of the journey and reserves a special patch for her pet hen Josefina.

"In 1992 author Douglas Preston and his wife and daughter rode horseback across 400 miles of desert in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. They were retracing the route of a Navajo deity, the Slayer of Alien Gods, on his quest to restore beauty and balance to the Earth. More than a travelogue, Preston's account of their "one tough journey, luminously remembered" (Kirkus Reviews) is a tale of two cultures meeting in a sacred land and is "like traveling...

When Duncan McKaskel decided to move his family west, he knew he would face dangers, and he was prepared for them. He knew about the exhausting terrain, and he was expecting the punishing elements. What he worried about was having to use violence against other men--men who would follow him and try to steal the riches that he didn't even possess. Yet bandits were only part of McKaskel's worries. For a mysterious stranger, Con Vallian, had appeared...

When a native of Iowa returns from England to wander across America's heartland in search of the perfect small town, the result is a string of hilarious anecdotes and biting social commentary

"From the bestselling author of Prayers for Sale, an inspiring celebration of sisterhood on the perilous Overland Trail "If you are an adventuresome young woman of high moral character and fine health, are you willing to travel to California in search of a good husband?" It's February, 1852, and all around Chicago, Maggie sees the postings soliciting "eligible women" to travel to the gold mines of Goosetown. A young seamstress with a small daughter...

A legend is born...and the saga begins. He'd come to the Rockies as a runaway twelve-year-old and grown into a living legend. He could out fight, out drink, out cuss, out dance, out ride and out lie any man alive. They called him Preacher...All Preacher has on his mind is a hankering for some companionship at the annual mountain man rendezvous in Popo Agie. But his plans change when he rides down into Fort Hall and finds he's the only man knowledgeable...

Boone's Lick transports the reader to the era about which McMurtry writes better and more shrewdly than anyone else. Told with McMurtry's unique blend of historical fact and sheer storytelling genius, the novel follows the Cecil family's arduous journey by riverboat and wagon from Boone's Lick, Missouri, to Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming. Fifteen-year-old Shay narrates, describing the journey that begins when his Ma, Mary Margaret, decides to hunt down...