The California Trail by Ralph Compton

The California Trail by Ralph Compton

An extraordinary saga of the trail-blazing cowboys who made their fortune
driving cattle from Texas to the Great Frontier.

Across the Pecos, the Rio Colorado and La Panza mountains, the Texans and their longhorns kept charging-all the way to California gold!

Between The Bandera Range And California, They Faced All The Challenges Of Man And God, But Nothing Could Ever Make Them Quit.

The only riches Texans had left after the Civil War were five million
maverick longhorns and the brains, brawn and boldness to drive them
north to where the money was. Now, Ralph Compton brings this violent and magnificent time to life in an extraordinary epic series based on the history-making trail drives.

The California Trail

Gold fever had hit California, and suddenly, the land was full of hungry pioneers. For Gil and Van Austin, two Texas brothers, it meant the chance to sell well-grazed longhorns after years of hard ranching and a treacherous cattle drive up through Mexico. The only trouble was that California was on the other side of a searing desert, swollen rivers, a barrage of Indian attacks, and a whole passel of outlaw trouble. And while the Texans and their men were ready and willing to take it all on, there was one thing they weren't prepared for: the ultimate act of treachery and deceit in a land of schemers, dreamers and gold!

Ralph Compton stood six-foot-eight without his boots. The Goodnight Trail was his first novel in the Trail Drive series and was a finalist for the Western Writers of America Medicine Pipe Bearer Award for best debut novel. He was also the author of the Sundown Rider series and the Border Empire series. A native of St. Clair County, Alabama, Compton worked as a musician, a radio announcer, a songwriter, and a newspaper columnist before turning to writing westerns. He died in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1998.

Scott Sowers is an accomplished actor of both stage and screen. His theater credits include roles in Inherit the Wind, A Streetcar Named Desire, Bus Stop, and A Few Good Men. His many television credits include guest roles on Law & Order, The Black Donnellys, Six Degrees, All My Children, and the Hallmark Channel's Season for Miracles and The Yearling. Scott has also appeared in the films Trust the Man, The Village and The Ten. He has narrated numerous audiobooks by such authors as Douglas Preston, Robert Ludlum, John Hart, and Nicholas Sparks. In reviewing the AudioFile Earphones Award Winning book Down River, written by John Hart and published by Macmillan Audio, AudioFile magazine described Scott as [providing] a bewitching rhythm and pace, expertly capturing and elevating this story of redemption. The combination of Hart and Sowers provides the perfect marriage of prose and voice. Together they enable the book to transcend genre fiction and become something exceptional.