Books by B N Rundell

The mountains had become his home. He made them his home after fleeing the hypocrisy of civilization in Missouri at the graveside of his father and mother and began fulfilling the life long dream held dear by his father and himself. When he first came to the mountains, he was a younker and a greenhorn, but now he was a seasoned man of the mountains. Returning from a quick trip back to St. Louis, he was again determined to never leave his beloved mountains, the far blue mountains, the Rocky Mountains, the high and lonesome, the only place he could see forever and breathe the air that held not a scent of anything from civilization. On the trip up the Missouri to Fort Union aboard the steamboat, he befriended an old-timer and well-seasoned mountain man, Knuckles, and the old man agreed to show the newcomer around Crow and Blackfeet country. Tate Saint knew it was always best to learn from someone that knew the different people of the mountains, and this man seemed to know his way around the different tribes never before encountered by Tate in the mountains to the South. But he wanted to explore all the mountains from the Canadian Rockies to the southern Sangre de Cristo. This time the mountains in the north were beckoning the young man so full of wanderlust, but little did he know what awaited, from renegades to missionaries and a lovely Indian lass that seemed to be the answer to the question he didn't know how to ask.

Tatum Saint and his father shared a dream of the Rocky Mountains, but when his father was killed, young Tatum decided to make that dream a reality. But wherever he goes, there's always somebody needing help. Now as he prepares to build a cabin in the wilderness, he stumbles across a couple of runaway slaves that were seeking freedom in the uncharted territory. After their camp is destroyed and brother and sister are injured when Tatum stampedes a herd of elk, he feels obligated to care for them until they recover. Tatum finds it an arduous process to settle in the mountains, with confrontations with the Caputa Ute, mountain lions, and grizzly bears. But when the Jicarilla Apache take the girl and his friend, White Feather of the Comanche, captive, he and her brother, together with Tatum's friends from the Comanche, must mount a rescue. Using their own superstitions against them to balance the odds, the challenges and confrontations prove to be deadly and overwhelming. But not only must they battle the dreaded Apache, they must also face the assaults of nature herself, not just to rescue the captives, but to survive as well. It is a hard lesson to learn that freedom in the frontier does not come easily nor without great cost.

If the man of the mountains, Tate Saint, had a fault, it was that he had a hard time saying no whenever someone needed his help. But now he has a family and the wilderness makes many demands on anyone that tries to master the mountains. And if a redheaded Irish wife, a curious toddler for a son, a wolf for a hunting companion and a bear cub for a playmate for his son wasn't enough, a legendary mountain man, Old Bill Williams, recruits him to help John C. Fremont on his expedition to find a route through the Sangre de Cristo and San Juan mountains in the middle of winter. When the elder statesman of the mountains, Williams, tells Fremont it can't be done, the Pathfinder expects Tate Saint to get them through. But this venture soon becomes one of the most treacherous and deadly expeditions of the times. Facing the full onslaught of a Rocky Mountain winter with twenty-foot snowdrifts, below zero temperatures, and every other hazard that could be brought to bear, the challenges must be met and conquered. But the things that must be done and the sacrifices that must be made become more than anyone expected or wants to remember. One of the greatest challenges of the young mountain man's life must be met and conquered, or he and many others will die.

The power of a promise made and a promise kept is realized when Jeremiah Thompsett comes of age and accepts the responsibility of fulfilling his mentor's long-held dream. Raised by an escaped slave in the midst of the Arapaho nation in the Wind River mountains, he now must track down the slave catchers that killed his adopted father and stole their cache. The Vengeance Quest takes him and his companions through the mountains and across the nation to fulfill the promise of freeing the family of slaves held dear to his mentor and adopted father. Accompanied by Broken Shield and Laughing Waters, his Arapaho friend and his sister, the trek through the mountains and to Fort Union is fraught with hazard and ambush. It is here he is joined by Scratch, the crusty mountain man who joins him on his journey downriver and across country to find Ezekiel's family and to seek to free them.

The Overland Stage line had become the target of raids by the Dog Soldiers, a confederacy of Cheyenne, Arapaho and Lakota, that sought to regain the land stolen from the Indians by the new government of Colorado Territory. A bitter cold winter added to the danger of the continued assaults on wagon trains, stage stations and stages. But when Colonel Chivington launched his retaliatory attack on the peaceful Cheyenne village that resulted in a massacre of women and children, the Indians will strike back again and again. Talon Thompsett, Shotgun for the Overland stage line, would be caught in the middle of what would become the Colorado Indian Wars and after repeated skirmishes with the Dog Soldiers and living through a stage wreck, the injured Talon has a long trek ahead to return to his new wife. But she would not wait and anxious to find her husband, she sets out alone to find her man, not knowing if he's dead or alive, but she is willing to take on the entire combined Indian nations to rescue her man.Forced into a battle of her own, Ginny Thompsett proves her mettle and is joined by the legendary mountain man, James Beckwourth, in her continuing search for her husband. While the territory rages in the war between the Dog Soldiers and the many stage stations and ranches that were the object of their wrath, Talon's determination to survive and Ginny's commitment to prevail that will give this young couple a chance as a family and a future together.

Sometimes in life, the shortest distance between where you are and where you want to be is not necessarily the best route. Life often takes you on a much longer trail before you reach the goal you were destined for, and this circuitous route usually has valuable life lessons. These are the lessons that littered the path of the lives of Clancy and Caleb as they fled from the sorrow of the mountains and searched for answers in all the wrong places. Thinking the big city would provide refuge and salve for painful memories, they learned where ever they went there were new lessons to learn and memories to be made. With both having a love for the mountains and the often solitary lifestyle, the pull of the city would not readily release its grip but they would have to chart their own course. With an opportunity provided by new found friendships and the possibility of a new direction for their lives, they seek to return to the mountains to find their own nirvana and a new beginning to establish their home and their legacy. The shining mountains and green valley of the Medicine Bow range that nestles in the Southern most part of Wyoming territory beckons them and the promise of a new life gives hope where there was none. Now is when they find out if they have the strength and stamina to build a new life in the mountains of the Medicine Bow.

He had been challenged to carve a ranch out of the wilderness of the West. To partner with the brother of one of the most successful ranchers in Texas and build the first ranch in the wilds of the territories. Caleb and his wife and friends chose to confront the wilds of what would become Wyoming territory and establish one of the first ranches in that desolate country. Little did it matter that they knew nothing about ranching or cattle but the challenge had been given and accepted. However, the land he chose lay between the Ute Indians and their enemy, the Cheyenne and with all the other difficulties that included an unmerciful winter, a pack of hungry wolves, and a monster mama grizzly bear bent on protecting her cubs, what more could be thrown their way?Gunfights, Indian Wars, nature's fury, and more assault the pioneers as they seek to build the first cattle ranch along the Cherokee Trail. Yet the new frontier fought back against anyone that sought to leave their mark on the virgin territory claimed by the wild animals and the Native Americans. But destiny would have a hand and that hand had been dealt. What would be the outcome of this game of life?

When a young man with big dreams suddenly becomes an orphan, he is faced with big decisions. Holding to the dream of living in the Rocky Mountains that Tatum shared with his father, he begins his journey-a journey that takes him through the lands of the Osage and Kiowa and ultimately to the land of the Comanche. A solitary man by nature, he travels by night and sees a different land than the many pilgrims and settlers of the 1840's. Although driven by a desire to be away from people and their scheming ways, he is repeatedly drawn into the lives and problems of others. Although the ways of the woods are not new to him, he was a novice in his dealings with people, but his upbringing made him interject himself into the problems of others. The passing wagon train had more than its share of conflicts, but when Tatum spotted an impending attack by Comanche his conscience demanded he warn them. Then when that involvement includes a smallpox plague and a defenseless tribe of Comanche, Tatum is faced with a decision to try to free the captive white women or warn the warring Comanche. His journey to the mountains has become a journey to jeopardy.