The fates of Miwok?Indian Mary,? Elitha Donner of the Donner Party, and proud Californio Pedro Valdez entwine in a drama of passion and power on the ranch now owned by the author. 1844-1853.

Trammel’s Trace tells the story of a borderlands smuggler and an important passageway into early Texas. Trammel’s Trace, named for Nicholas Trammell, was the first route from the United States into the northern boundaries of Spanish Texas. From the Great Bend of the Red River it intersected with El Camino Real de los Tejas in Nacogdoches. By the early nineteenth century, Trammel’s Trace was largely a smuggler’s trail that delivered horses and contraband into the region. It was a microcosm of the migration, lawlessness, and conflict that defined the period. By the 1820s, as Mexico gained independence from Spain, smuggling declined as Anglo immigration became the primary use of the trail. Familiar names such as Sam Houston, David Crockett, and James Bowie joined throngs of immigrants making passage along Trammel’s Trace. Indeed, Nicholas Trammell opened trading posts on the Red River and near Nacogdoches, hoping to claim a piece of Austin’s new colony. Austin denied Trammell’s entry, however, fearing his poor reputation would usher in a new wave of smuggling and lawlessness. By 1826, Trammell was pushed out of Texas altogether and retreated back to Arkansas Even so, as author Gary L. Pinkerton concludes, Trammell was “more opportunist than outlaw and made the most of disorder.”

This is a story about my life. I am hoping that it will inspire you to follow your dreams as I have done so.

In The Red River in Southwestern History, Carl Newton Tyson traces the river’s history from the time of early Spanish and French explorers to the present day, leading his readers to a new appreciation of the river and the region. From the Staked Plains of the Texas Panhandle the river flows down to buffalo and prairie dog country and through the Cross Timbers. It continues eastward to the Great Bend and through the cypresses of Louisiana’s bayou country, joining the Mississippi River south of Natchez. Whereas the Red River was a source of water to the Spaniards as they searched for gold, at Natchitoches, French trader Louis Juchereau de St. Denis traded with the Caddo Indians. Conflicts soon developed between French traders and Spaniards in Texas as they competed for land along the Red. Years later, the Red River featured again as part of the settlement in the 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty, negotiated by Spanish minister Luis de Onís y Gonzales and U.S. secretary of state John Quincy Adams, which finally brought to an end the western boundary disputes between Spain and the United States lingering since the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. In 1852 Randolph Marcy discovered the source of the Red River—a mountain rivulet cutting a deep canyon through the Staked Plains. Marcy’s testimony in the Greer County border dispute between Oklahoma and Texas was key to the U.S. Supreme Court decision favoring Oklahoma. In the decades between 1930 and 1970, dams were built along the Red by the U.S. Corps of Engineers to control floods, generate electricity, and create lakes for recreation along the Oklahoma-Texas border.

Travel guide book inspired by the gold prospecting origin of Colorado. Includes touring information on all the major towns founded as gold mining camps as well as summaries of each town's origin story. Includes reviews and recommendations on historic districts to visit, mines to tour, driving tours of ghost towns and places to gold pan. Includes information on 16 historic districts, 31 museums, 18 mines, 186 gold panning sites across the state of Colorado. Thoroughly researched to confirm public access to the panning sites (no private property or areas subject to mining claim has been included - unlike other books.)Written by a long-time Colorado resident and gold prospector. Based on years of research and field work.Get your share of the gold by prospecting for it in historic, urban, and remote locations across the gold districts of Colorado.