Antoine Robidoux, equally at home in the mountains or the Santa Fe governor's home, built a vast fur trading empire that covered modern day western Colorado and eastern Utah. In his book, Ken Reyher tracks the life of a young adventurer who heads West to eventually build a trading empire that successfully challenged even the powerful Hudson Bay Company. As quickly as he rose, his world came crashing down, and one of the great chapters of the early west came to an end.

Antoine Robidoux and Fort Uncompahgre

Biographies & Memoirs

Reyher, Ken

Historical

Western Reflections Publishing Co.

In less than a decade the major mining towns of the San Juans went from temporary communities of tents and shacks to thriving cities with telephones and electric lights. Silver and Sawdust gives the reader an intimate look at the day-to-day lives of the men and women who lived in the booming San Juan mining camps of the late 1880s -- the years of a silver boom that many believed would last a hundred years, but which ended abruptly in 1893.These are the stories of ordinary, yet extraordinary, lives. It tells of how they worked, played, raised families, and died in the midst of some of the most awesome scenery in the world during the glory years of San Juan silver.

Silver and Sawdust

History

Americas

Life was tough for the western Colorado Cowboy. He faced a set of challenges that were totally different from his counterpart in Texas or even those brave men who worked on the open plains of eastern Colorado. Deep snows made it necessary to keep the cattle at lower elevations in the winter yet drought required they be driven back to the high country in the summer. A variety of predators could quickly disappear into the rugged countryside. Newborn calves might never be found. 
High water from spring runoffs or sudden mountain cloudbursts were also a problem. But the largest challenge came from the terrain-steep mountain gullies and high mountain peaks could not only kill a cow but often kept them from being found. 
Ken Reyher has done a marvelous job of bringing this dangerous and unique life to light. He comes by it naturally, having been raised by a ranching family. He has worked as a history teacher and a crop duster pilot. Besides history, he loves to write cowboy poetry. His work has appeared in many national and local publications. He has written two other books published by Western Reflections-Antoine Robidoux and Fort Uncompahgre and Silver and Sawdust.

High Country Cowboy

Knowing very little of the country through which they were to travel, two Franciscan priests set out from Santa Fe in 1776 to find an overland route to the Spanish missions at Monterey Bay on the California coast. For 159 days they wandered through the wilderness in the four-corners region of the Southwest, experiencing many trials and tribulations. They ran out of food and were forced to eat several of their horses. Most of the time the expedition was technically lost and they never did find their way to California, but they explored a vast new land and made remarkably accurate maps. It was a memorable adventure that they recorded in detail in their diaries. 
Using these diaries, Ken Reyher, the author, physically retraced the 1700-mile route so that he would know firsthand the land they traveled through and the reasons they made the decisions they did. Unlike previous books on the expedition, Reyher focuses on the adventure as well as the historical events along the way. The result is an accurate history that reads more like a fast paced novel.

Wilderness Wanderers: The 1776 Expedition of Dominguez & Escalante

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Reyher, Ken. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Reyher, Ken

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Reyher, Ken. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Antoine Robidoux and Fort Uncompahgre

Silver and Sawdust

High Country Cowboy

Wilderness Wanderers: The 1776 Expedition of Dominguez & Escalante