Hal J. Kelly

Demoralized by twenty-six loveless years in matrimony and bitter retrospect on drudgeries of the past, Craig Burton makes a sudden and dramatic decision to alter his life. Forever mysteriously drawn to the vast wilderness west of the Mississippi River and impelled by a strange longing, he plunges recklessly westward to satisfy these inner urges. Mesmerized by the exploits of Lewis an Clark, Jedediah Smith, William H. Ashley, John C. Fremont and others, this resolute and head strong man leaves the complacency of Rexburg, Ohio to follow the Oregon and Mormon Trails far from his family. Continually ignoring sage advise, Craig staggers from one brutal encounter to another, miraculously escaping each time with the accumulating feeling that he is receiving aid from an unknown force. As he wanders and explores in his fur trapping pursuits, Craig soon realizes that many trails and localities are familiar from some where in a past life. Searching for answers, he eventually meets his Mother of the Uintah' and confirms that, yes, he had been in these places before. Meeting a wandering and poverty stricken tribe of Utes, Craig quickly develops a bond of mutual respect and feeling of brotherhood with his primitive friends. A relationship that later saves his life when he is besieged by a group of marauding Arapahoes. Later, when inexorably integrated into the tribal culture of the Kwa'da Kiowa, Craig yields to tender sexual temptations with a young Shoshone slave girl only to discover the cruel penalties for such temerity, Heart broken and finding an intense dislike for himself festering within, he forms a strange but mutually beneficial alliance with an equally irresponsible, young prairie wolf. An alliance whereby each learns some facts of life from the other. Shyly returning to civilization, Craig is quickly introduced to the prejudice for appearing more savage than contemporary. Violence seems to gravitate to him in one brutal episode after another. Weary of it all and feeling unworthy of re-entering society he heads back to the one place he knows there are friends and he will feel at home, Keedskadee on the Green River in Wyoming territory. But again, in his last and only remaining haven, tragedy strikes with the loss of his two remaining side kicks and devastating news from back home. Craig Burton is crushed to his knees in abject despair. Hopelessly captivated by the grandeur and vastness of the American West and horribly alone, it is the love of a strong and caring woman who ultimately heals Craig Burtons soul and salvages a place in the wilderness for them.

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