The Wilderness Pathfinder — Robert M. Johnson

"That be you Jeremiah?" Came the shout from the door of the small building that served as the Coburn trading post. The voice was that of a big man, his beard shaggy and unkempt showing traces of his breakfast, dripping with coffee. "You come some long way from the mountains, them Crow warriors still after you? Heard they did in your family, shame that " Tom Coburn said as he spit on the ground." The story of Jeremiah Warner continues, as the Mountain Man series brings to life its 11th installment. For readers who are new to this character and his life in the high mountains, this book will be an adventure in itself. It takes place in the early 1840's as America was beginning to awaken to the potential of Western migration. The manifest destiny of the 19th century was just about to reach its full expression. Once again, Robert M. Johnson captures the intense life that broke the western frontier open for commerce and settlement. The harsh life of the 1840's is portrayed in the endless beauty of the vast mountains and the rough and violent men who sought to tame it. In this volume the Warlock becomes the Pathfinder, the eyes and ears of the great explorer John Charles Fremont once again. In volume number nine, the Mountain Man became part of the first expedition west, under the title "The Warlocks Way." In this volume, number eleven, he takes part in the second expedition of John Charles Fremont, mapping out the Oregon Trail, which would become the thoroughfare of thousands and thousands of people going West to settle the new territory. Their adventures take them from the high mountain peaks where snow is an ever-threatening enemy to survival, and to the Great Salt Lake itself where storms can come up with a force that is devastating. The new companion of the Mountain Man, a young Cheyenne woman continues to occupy a greater place in his life and presents a fascinating example of native women like the famous Sacagawea, who played such an essential role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805. For the reader encountering Jeremiah Warner for the first time, they will see a character with great strength and with the self-confidence that has been gained from personal tragedy. For those returning to this character after following the first ten volumes, they will see a new stage in his life unfolding. Now he begins to achieve his dream of having his own land on the eastern slopes of the great mountains. Let the story begin, let the story continue.