Beauty for Ashes (Rendezvous)

About this book

Trapping beaver was the major source of income 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 man could survive it all. 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 just such a man. Followed closely by Coy his faithful 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 and 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 Meadowlarks people. 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 Meadowlarks 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 Meadowlarks hand. 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.