Finding a Firestone — Robert M. Johnson

The 19th Century in America was remarkable for many things that formed and shaped the new country that was rapidly expanding from ocean to ocean. Men like Sam Ogden and Clyde Patterson had been among the first to participate in the wilderness trapping bonanza spawned by the beaver trade and the culture of the top hat. Now, it is the 1840's, and the need for beaver pelts is over. The West was about to see the first signs of a real Western migration, the Oregon Trail. Sam Ogden had invested his wealth, from his days as a trapper, in the General Store of a southern Colorado settlement, at Grand Junction. With his wife, the Mandan woman, Little Fire, Sam has settled down and is beginning to raise a family. His reputation with the Long rifle, the frontier Hawken rifle, followed him into the more stable life of the settlement. His partner, Clyde Patterson, a bit older than Young Sam, has also taken up life in the settlement. They both became embedded in the process of the western frontier, as it developed the first signs of what the two former trappers called disdainfully, civilization. Grand Junction was evolving partly because of Clyde and Sam and partly despite them. In the young life of Sam Ogden, several years have gone by since the last time he decided to write down the events of his life on the frontier. During the intervening years he has fathered two children and made many new friends as part owner of the General Store at Grand Junction. This volume, Finding a Firestone, is number eleven in the Sam Ogden Mountain Man Series. It takes up the account of Sam's discovery of precious stones and minerals like gold and silver in the Rocky Mountain regions of the Colorado territory. Sam is trying to make room in his life for his passion, prospecting for gold and gemstones. Putting down roots at Grand Junction, after many years roaming the high mountains as a trapper, has allowed Sam to explore the land he loves, in a new way: Finding a Firestone. First, the Spaniards came into the region one hundred years before, looking for the City of Gold. They gave up in discouragement, not finding the El Dorado they were looking for. It would be many years before Colorado began to experience its own gold rush. After the 49ers rushing through to California, Colorado had its own boomtown discovery, recognized in the popular expression, Pike's Peak or Bust! Long before the frenzy of the Colorado gold rush, men like Sam Ogden were already pioneering that discovery. Finding a Firestone, tells the story of these early years, preceding the Colorado Gold Rush.