Steve Frazee

This collection of short stories showcases Steve Frazee's ability to cover many different themes while capturing the American West with impeccable historical accuracy. In the title story, he blends elements of a gripping horror story within a Western setting. Because of rustling, ranchers have taken to posting a night guard at Big Ghost Basin. These guards are being killed -- and evidence points to a gigantic beast whose tracks match no known animal, and who has never been seen by anyone who is still alive.

Rigdon Sadar must race against time to clear his family's name and find twenty-seven sacks of high-grade ore that his grandfather had supposedly stolen many years ago when a group of desperate men come after him.

Brock and Pat were raised together since boyhood, and for the past ten years they saved their money to buy a ranch. Now Pat is dead, dragged by his horse--and Brock is sure it was murder. He comes to the mining town of Weston, Colorado, looking for answers and finds too many--and a pack of trouble besides. First he finds that Pat had been working undercover for the railroad. Then he learns that a hundred-thousand-dollar gold shipment has been stolen. It seems that the more he learns, the harder it is to make sense of it all. But he has to make sense of it fast if he wants to stay alive.

Ed Cushman looks for the people who killed his family years ago.

In the title story, The Big Trouble, He Cries, a Uncompahgre Ute, sees his first white men at the end of the summer of many rains while still a boy. The white men who are in the area searching for gold attack the small encampment, killing everyone except He Cries, who escapes. Years later, He Cries has become White Bear, when trouble with encroaching miners on Ute lands reaches a crisis due to sheer numbers. White Bear decides to fight to keep white men off Ute land. This Western Trio also includes The Man Who Rode Alone and Payroll of the Dead.

Traces the science of surveying from ancient times to the present and discusses the contribution of explorers such as Captain Cook and Prince Henry of Portugal. Also describes the development of the compass and chronometer and their importance for determining direction and accurately measuring time and distance.

Death rides this trail! : The story of Jake and Emma Breslin, who pack a covered wagon and head west to find a new life for their family. But they will need all the courage they can muster when Mr. Breslin is killed halfway out. Tower of rocks : Roy Hale, a former captain in the Confederate Army, who receives an anonymous note detailing a hazardous mission that will pay extremely well...if he can survive.

"In two western stories, greed threatens to destroy two communities--one mining, one ranching--with near disastrous results"--