The Last Ride of Caleb O'Toole (23 page)

They continue nearly one hundred miles alone through Yellowstone to
Virginia
City, Montana Territory
. Virginia City was a town built on gold, mining, and fur trading. Even though there was considerable social activity, dances, and entertainment, there also existed one of the most dangerous roads in the land. Highwaymen, murderers, thieves, and con artists controlled the eighty-mile stretch between Virginia City and
Bannack,
another gold-strike town. It was nearly impossible to pass unharmed. One notorious man, Sheriff Henry Plummer of Bannack, vowed to clean up the lawlessness and erected a gallows. His power stretched to Virginia City and he and his henchmen hanged anyone suspected of thieving. He himself was accused of the very deeds he claimed to prevent and was hanged on his own gallows by hooded vigilantes, who also had vowed to clean up the towns. They in turn were accused of running a crooked ring and were threatened with hanging by miners, traders, and town folk if they continued their evil ways.

Caleb and his sisters travel the final hundred miles to the ranch in the
Bitterroot
Mountains
, passing the site of the Battle of Big Hole where the Nez Perce Indians were dealt a fatal blow by the U.S. Army in a surprise attack just one month before. The story comes to a rousing conclusion with an epic gun battle in the shadows of the
Painted
Mountains
of the Bitterroot. It is a journey of three and a half months and over thirteen hundred treacherous miles.

I would like to thank the following people who helped make this book possible.

Tom Dixon, my English teacher at Landon School, for trying so hard to make me pay attention in class.

Deijon Erkins, my companion and Little Brother from the Big Brothers of Greater Los Angeles, for his inspiring friendship along our many adventures.

My family, for their constant support and encouragement.

My manager, Marilyn R. Atlas, who has been after me to write for many years.

My agent, Adriana Dominguez, for all her hard work and wonderful insights.

My publisher, Steve Geck, for giving my book wings.

All the wonderfully helpful people I met along the way, from Kansas to Montana.

Eric Pierpoint is a professional actor of stage, screen, and television. He has appeared in a great many of your favorite shows from the recent
Hart
of
Dixie
and
Parks
and
Recreation
to old nuggets like
Hill
Street
Blues, Fame, Star Trek, Alien Nation, Liar Liar, The World's Fastest Indian,
and
Holes
. Born in Redlands, California, he was raised in Washington, D.C., where he studied classical theater. After a stint in New York, he moved to Los Angeles in the mid-eighties and now lives in the rustic hills of nearby Topanga among the owls, crickets, coyotes, and rattlesnakes, a place he likes to just put his feet up, watch the hawks circling overhead, and write.

Visit him and learn more at
www.ericpierpoint.net
.