Rivers West

Through the rolling grasslands of Kansas runs the Smoky Hill River, a rich source of opportunity for those bold enough to risk the dream-killing territory. For Gabe, mountain-man and scout, the river means freedom and a chance to map unexplored territory with the Great Pathfinder, John Charles Fremont. For Lem, an Illinois farm boy in pursuit of gold, it is a cruel foe who robs him of his family and his youth. For Jesse, a young Union corporal, this is the country that took his father and uncle and where he must fight warring Indians.

When the rest of the West was already won...the mountains remained unspoiled and deadly. The men and women who tamed this savage land were tough, lawless and, when necessary, as mean as the traps they carried. They lived by a private code of proud honor and swift justice. Burly, Isaac Beard was the living embodiment of that mountain code. To survive, he fought his way to a safe haven near Spirit Lake in the Colorado upcountry, forged an alliance with the untamed Ute Indians and made a place where generations of Beards resided in safety.

Along the harsh North California coast the otters swam, enough to fill the Russians' trading ships with valuable pelts. So there they raised an outpost. But inland lay another land, a river wilderness, where game and grizzly thrived. Into this wild land, stripped of his rank for marrying an Indian girl, Lieutenant Anton Rostov is cast. He is an man without a country, but still he is a man. He can hunt, trap, and conquer. And he discovers a power greater than his allegiance to a faraway Czar - the lure of a new world.

Eastward, as far as the eye could see, stretched the Great Plains. Westward rose the Rockies, snow-capped peaks of grandeur. In the middle flowed a mighty river - silent, glistening, and turbulent - the bloodline of a wide and wild land. Three hard, tough men staked their claims on its potent shores: Jake Stonecipher, pioneer merchant, seeking his fortune yet finding a war; Will Burke, a mountain man as savage as the wilderness itself; and Francisco Serrano, determined to carve a fertile ranch out of the stubborn soil.

John Augustus Sutter came to the wide and wild California country to build an empire. At his side was Morgan Beck, out to stake his own claim at the confluence of two powerful rivers, the Sacramento and the American.

Down the eastern slopes of the Rockies, out upon the Great Plains, and into the heart of Blackfeet country flows the Two Medicine River. To this wild and beautiful land, come a pair of young wanderers, half-breeds born of two worlds, but belonging to neither. Marie Therese de Paris - driven by the fires in her spirit - sets out on a vision quest, hoping to save the Blackfeet from their cruel fate. Peter Kipp, bold and ambitious, chooses to follow his father. Bound by love, but torn by their loyalties, they share a single destiny.

The Gila River flows gently through the parched Sonoran Desert. Along its banks, fierce Apaches, Pima farmers, Spaniards, and brash Americans all vie for control in a harsh and unforgiving land. There is Miguel Santana, a young Spaniard abandoned by his comrades; his Pima son Vitorio; Jacova, a woman whose indomitable spirit tamed a mighty Apache warrior; and the "man of three bloods".

The river belongs to all, and to none. On the banks of the Gila, their lives all come together, in love and in war.

From the distant mountains, through the vast deserts to the Gulf of Mexico flows the Rio Grande River, giving life, promising adventure, shaping empires. And across its banks fought the Americans, the Mexican Army, the Shoshone, the Utes and the Arapaho Indians. Matthew Caine, an American agent working against the Mexican Army, also known as "El Gigante", attempts to make allies of the plains Indians. Lieutenant Melgares, of the Mexican Army is sworn to find the American spy and bring him to the Santa Fe gallows.

Buck Wallace, a lone white man in the land of the Kwahadie Comanche, was determined to make his home by the Pecos River. He vowed to live alongside the Kwahadies and carve his own private paradise out of the wilderness. But the trail to peace was long, hard and stained with the blood of the few who went before him. He would have to brave the challenge of the legendary warrior Goyah...learn the perils and pleasures of love from the beautiful Kiowa woman Asa...and test his will to survive.

Haunting, majestic, and powerful, the Columbia River flows down from the rugged Rockies, through the deep, forbidden forests, and across the open plain. Along its banks, bold, strong men of ambition and enterprise sought their fortune. It was a time and a place where the fur trade could make you wealthy...or get you killed. Into this land of adventure and treachery came Jared Flynn, a man running from his tragic past.

For many bold pioneers headed west, the sweetest sight of all was the Humboldt River, a crooked ribbon of silver snaking through Nevada into California. But to Libby Pike and her family, the Humboldt brought sudden disaster. Stranded with her young daughter, Libby found herself surrounded by hostile renegades and an unforgiving wilderness. Then she stumbled upon a father and his two sons in search of a dream valley where they could settle and prosper.

Amid the magnificent desolation of the American Southwest ran a river of hope, bringing life to the desert, and pioneers to a forbidding land. They gathered on the banks of the Purgatory...wandering souls on the run from the past...or in search of the future: Hernan Eduardo and his sister Elena, posing as husband and wife to hide her shame; Aaron, who has fled from danger his whole life, and who has to summon the courage to stand up for his rights; and Talks To Ghosts, a native on a vision quest.

Buck Wallace was determined to make his home by the Pecos River. He vowed to live alongside the Kwahadies and carve his own private paradise out of the wilderness. But the trail to peace was long, hard and stained with the blood of the few who went before him. He would have to brave the challenge of the legendary warrior Goyah...learn the perils and pleasures of love from the beautiful Kiowa woman Asa...and test his will to survive in a land of infinite promise...and intense danger.

At the far western edge of the Great Plains, where the prairie meets the mountains, flows the South Platte, drawing farmers, traders, and trappers to land long held sacred by two proud tribes. As the pioneers stake claims beside the pure waters of the river, conflicts threaten to explode into war. Men and women on both sides fight to protect their families, fortunes, and future....

Through a harsh land of mesquite and prickly pear, scattered oaks and carpets of stubborn grass, the Brazos River wound its way south to the Gulf of Mexico. To its banks came settlers from across America, daring men and women who dreamed of owning ranches and farms, building homes for their families, and one day establishing a United States republic in Mexican-held Texas. Among them were Jon Tallman, a wanderer and adventurer; Nancy Stafford, a strong-willed pioneer; Jacobs, a wagon train leader; and Alan.