Books by Ralph Compton

From bestselling author Ralph Compton-an extraordinary saga of the hard-driving Texans who locked horns with a ruthless railroad baron in a bloody battle for an untamed land. In the aftermath of the Civil War, cash-starved Texans turned to the only resource they possessed in abundance: longhorn cows. Despite the hazards of trailing longhorns across some three hundred miles of Indian Territory, this was the only way to access the railroad... THE WESTERN TRAIL Benton McCaleb and his band of bold-spirited cowboys traveled long and hard to drive thousands of ornery cattle into Wyoming''s Sweetwater Valley. They''re in the midst of setting up a ranch just north of Cheyenne when a ruthless railroad baron and his hired killers try to force them off the land. Now, with the help of the Shoshoni Indian tribe and a man named Buffalo Bill Cody, McCaleb and his men must vow to stand and fight. Outgunned and outmanned, they will wage the most ferocious battle of their lives-to win the right to call the land their own. "Very seldom in literature have the legends of the Old West been so vividly painted." -Tombstone Epitaph

They had beaten the harsh odds of the frontier. But for the two powerful ranchers, the most formidable trail lay ahead. There had never been a trail drive like this before...The only riches Texans had left after the Civil War were five million maverick longhorns and the brains, brawn, and boldness to drive them to market along treacherous trails. Now, Ralph Compton brings this violent and magnificent time to life in an extraordinary series based on the history-blazing trail drives.For veteran ranchers Nelson Story of Montana, and Benton McCaleb of Wyoming, it was an opportunity a man didn't pass up. In gold camps of the Black Hills, miners were hungry for beef, at boomtown prices. But within the two outfits were Indians, gunmen, Texans, lovesick cowboys, and high-spirited women. Worse, the drive would pass through Crow and Sioux territory, when Custer's defeat at the Little Big Horn was just hours away. The drives were tangled by violent grudges, stampeding herds, and dangerous deception. The two brawling outfits had one thing in common: a deadly surprise awaiting them at the end of the trail...

A man sets out to Mexico to avenge his father''s death in this western from USA Today bestselling author Ralph Compton.Nathan Stone, the man they called The Gunfighter, lay dead in the dust of an El Paso street. The Sandlin gang kicked up that dust as they rode back laughing into Mexico, where the U.S. law couldn''t touch them and local law didn''t want to.Behind him Nathan Stone left his horse, his Winchester, his custom-made Colts, and his name. The son who had grown up without him took them all. His name is Wes Stone. He used to be a lawman, but when he picks up his father''s guns, he takes down the star from his chest.Wes knows the impossible odds of going against the outlaw army and its empire of evil. But he knows something else too. He''s his father''s son, and he''s going to teach his father''s killers exactly what that means...More Than Six Million Ralph Compton Books In Print! 

A gunslinger goes up against his own kin in this western from USA Today bestselling author Ralph Compton. Nathan Stone is a living legend in the West as a lawman, an outlaw, a gambler, and a wanderer through the wildest towns and terrain. He has blazed a vengeance trail, giving no quarter and asking for none. Fearlessly, he plays his cards and uses his Colt .45s as best he can in games of chance, skill, and savagery, for stakes of life or death. Now he’s riding on a course that will test his rawhide nerves and lightning draw against the likes of Doc Holliday, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, the fleeing James brothers, and the incredible John Wesley Hardin as he heads toward a fateful rendezvous with the one gunfighter as fast and deadly as he: a teenage kid who kills like a man—Nathan’s own son...More Than Six Million Ralph Compton Books In Print!