The Cowan Family Saga

When Bruce Cowan takes his family and flees Boston to homestead out west, he figured the journey to California to be long but safe. Their first day out reveals how wrong he is and the perilous dangers of the Santa Fe Trail. It would have been a massacre but for Trent and Pat MacLeod. Trent favors a Sharps .50 caliber buffalo rifle, while his younger brother Pat packs two Texas Navy Colts. They both prove deadly and a force to be reckoned with. The Cowans and the McLeod brothers forge a bond those first few days, sustained in part by Trent's attraction to the 18-year-old Becky Cowan.

After Fort Dodge, wagon master Bruce Cowan had hoped the journey to Wagon Mound would get easier. That lasted but a few days. It horrified the settlers when they came across the burning remains of a smaller wagon train. Not one survivor. Bandits attacked this time, not Indians. Every day brings a fresh crisis. Trent and Pat, the McLeod brothers, with their gun-fighting skills, provide Bruce and the wagon train protection and much-needed guidance. Sometime even that isn't enough when they face Mother Nature at her most destructive.

The Cowans have arrived in Texas to homestead. After their dangerous trek west, they want to settle, free from worry and danger. With the help of his son, Wes, the McLeod brothers, and Pony Boy, Bruce is ready to raise his cabin.