UNCOMPAHGRE—where water turns rock red
This is the third novel of the Maps
of Fate era, (1854–1875)
of the Threads West, An
American Saga series.
INTRODUCTION
to the Maps of Fate Era Novels
of the Series
The year is 1854. America is on the cusp of her great westward expansion and the threshold of reluctantly becoming a world power. The lure of the vast territories and resources beyond the Mississippi explodes the population of St. Louis, gateway to the frontier, to almost one hundred thousand, an eight-fold expansion from just a decade prior.
One thousand miles to the west lie the Rocky Mountains, the lawless, untamed spine of the continent. The power of their jagged peaks beckons the vanguard of generations—the souls of a few adventurous men and women of many cultures and separate origins, to love and struggle in the beautifully vibrant but unforgiving landscape of the West. America’s promise of land, freedom, self-determination and economic opportunity is now known worldwide. Immigrants from many continents exchange the lives they know for the hope and romance of a country embarked on the course of greatness.
These immigrants drawn from the corners of the earth are unaware of the momentous changes that will shape the United States in the tumultuous years between 1854 and 1875, sweeping them into the vortexes of agony and ecstasy, victory and defeat, love lost and acquired.
The personal conflicts inherent to these brave, passion-filled characters—the point of the spear of the coming massive westward migration—are spurred by land, gold, the conquest of Mexican territory by the United States, railroads and telegraphs. Their relationships and ambitions are tempered by the fires of love and loss, hope and sorrow, life and death. Their personalities are shaped by dangerous journeys from far-off continents and then across a wild land to a wilderness where potential is the only known reality.
The epic saga of Threads West begins in 1854 with Book One. We meet the first of five richly textured, complex generations of unforgettable characters. The separate lives of these driven men and independent women are drawn to a common destiny that beckons seductively from the wild and remote flanks of the American West.
In Book Two, Maps of Fate, they are swept into the dangerous currents of the far-distant frontier by the mysterious rivers of fate, the power of the land and the American spirit. Secret maps, hidden ambitions, diverse cultural traditions and magnetic attractions inherent in lives forged by the fires of love and loss, hope and sorrow, life and death, shape their futures and the destinies of their lineage.
In Book Three, Uncompahgre, the time nears when the first of the next generation of Threads West characters will be born of the brave men and courageous women who have come so far and risked all. The men and women of the saga, having reached their initial destination: pre-Denver, Cherry Creek, are each faced with life-altering decisions. Some must decide to pursue or abandon torrid love affairs that have flowered on the dangerous journey from Europe and across America. Their lives shaken by events they could not foresee and converging with souls they could never imagine, they begin to build a nation that’s essence is in transition. The life threads of characters of uncommon cultures and competing ambitions meld through fate and history. The Oglala Sioux family struggles to cope with the inevitable change casting shadows upon their lands, culture and sacred traditions. The elderly slave couple, and a renegade and his young, traumatized captive introduced in Maps of Fate, are bound ever more tightly to the arc of the story—their tragedy and triumph-filled tales weaving into the fabric of a collective destiny. Mormons stream west in the Great Exodus escaping persecution and searching for Zion. Driven north by the Texas Rangers, an outlaw vaquero with royal blood quests for a new sense of self and place. The black-hearted renegade is unknowingly catapulted by his tortured past into possible redemption. A young man, kidnapped in his Chinese homeland, is forced to labor on the railroad but his determination to escape remains undaunted.
In the fourth and fifth books of the Threads West novels (Moccasin Tracks and Footsteps), the budding enmity between North and South flares into the winds of war, and the remote fringe of the frontier is destined to descend into virtual anarchy as most of the meager army troops are withdrawn to the east. On the Front Range of the Rockies, Cherry Creek will be renamed Denver as the city booms with the effect of gold discoveries in the Pikes Peak area and the Ouray, San Juan and Uncompahgre Mountain Ranges. The first newspapers in the West roll off the presses in Leavenworth and Lawrence, Kansas, and Platte Valley, Nebraska. The Sioux will grapple with the terrifying realization that they cannot compromise with the disdainful and greedy hairy-faced ones. A massive, unfeeling tide washes over their ancient traditions and lands essential to their existence.
A young man, kidnapped in his Chinese homeland, is forced to labor on the railroad but his determination to escape remains undaunted. The Mormon family begins to establish a dangerous but devout life in the Cache Valley, their thoughts drifting occasionally to those they have met in their travels West, unaware that twists of fate and the inexorable march of history hold future surprises. Chief Guera Murah dies, and the new chief of the Uncompahgre Ute, Ouray, though beset by his own personal tragedies, keeps solemn promises to the new settlers in the valley, despite enmity between the Sioux and the Ute, and growing evidence the words of many white eyes are far different than their deeds.
Momentous changes continue in Books Six, Seven, and Eight (Blood at Glorietta Pass, The Bond, and Cache Valley), igniting further greed and compassion, courage and treachery, rugged independence, torrid passions, and fierce loyalties. The Civil War erupts, and the fires of deadly tumult sweep west. A Confederate Army mustered in Texas is repulsed by the Denver Militia. The Mormon family contends with the demands of the church while creating a legacy in the Cache and Salt Lake Valleys, the fate of their lineage to be dramatically affected by those they have met long before. A tidal wave of hopeful souls, some displaced by the devastation of the Civil War, add to the torrent of humanity flowing west following the trail of the strong men and women of Uncompahgre. The meeting of the tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad from the east and Central Pacific from the west in 1869, underpin the rise of the robber barons, cattle empires and commerce, drawing hundreds of thousands to the Rockies and beyond.
The first Threads West generation born in the remote and sparsely settled west, and introduced in Moccasin Tracks, begins to mature and contend with this cauldron of events, their lives unsettled by personal tragedies, triumphs, love and loss. Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Montana evolve into separate and distinct territories and then achieve statehood. Law and order struggles as outlaws linger on the outer edges and range wars erupt between the landowners and the landless, sheepherders, cattlemen and sodbusters. The clash of cultures, creeds and beliefs, and bitter rivalries over the control of scarce water resources, fuels further violence and cruelty.
Soon, railroads and telegraphs will pierce even this wild land. The broken treaties with Native Americans spread into bitter and contagious conflict throughout the West. The “resolution” of the “Indian problem” leaves families and hearts broken, a dark stain on the pages of American history, and the foreboding visions of the Sioux in Book Two, Maps of Fate, sadly fulfilled.
You will recognize the characters who live in these pages. These brave, passion-filled characters face conflicts exacerbated by a country in transition and the accelerating melting pot of diverse cultures that mark this magical moment in American history. They are the ancestors of your neighbors, your family, your co-workers, their lives the woven threads of men and women from different locations, conflicting values, disparate backgrounds, faiths and beliefs. Forged on the anvil of the land, they are bound by the commonality of the American spirit into the tapestry that is our nation.
These decades of Maps of Fate Era novels of the Threads West, An American Saga series become the crucible of the American Spirit, forever affecting the souls of generations, the building of the heart of the nation, destiny of a people and the relentless energy and beauty of the western landscape.
The adventure and romance of America,
her people, her spirt and the West.
Threads West, An American Saga. This is our story