"Elliott West lays out the main events and developments that together describe and explain the emergence of the American West and situates the birth of the West in the broader narrative of American history between 1848 and 1880"--

Shaw Dance was a man with a peculiar philosophy - he took from his mountain only the gold and the sustenance he needed. Nor would he let anybody, gold seekers or otherwise, take more than that. The people of the small town at the foot of Shaw's Mountain had long since become accustomed to Shaw's peculiar ways. But now there was a man - one who didn't care about gold, who came to challenge the right of any man to sit on a mountain and call it his own....