
audiobook
The story opens in the spring of 1865, when the once‑mighty American Fur Company folds and its trading posts are up for sale. In the bustling river town of Fort Benton, a wave of anxiety sweeps through voyageurs, trappers and hunters as their livelihood hangs in the balance. Young Thomas Fox, fresh from the deck of the steamboat Yellowstone II, watches the panic ripple through the fort’s courtyard and feels the weight of a changing frontier pressing on his shoulders.
Against this backdrop, Thomas’s uncle—an experienced trader—rejects a partnership and declares his intention to run the fort on his own. With his steadfast wife Tsistsaki beside him and the looming presence of the Lakota scout Pitamakan, the family faces the daunting task of rebuilding a business from scratch. Their first challenge is not only to secure supplies and horses but also to navigate the uneasy alliances with neighboring tribes, setting the stage for a series of daring exploits along the war‑torn trails of the West.
Language
en
Duration
~3 hours (187K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Bergquist, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Release date
2013-07-13
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1859–1947
A writer, frontiersman, and longtime observer of Blackfeet life, he turned his years in Montana into vivid adventure stories and firsthand accounts of the American West. His books helped preserve memories, traditions, and landscapes that were already changing fast in his lifetime.
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