Supposedly this is part of a series but it will not matter if you haven't read the others. I first read this book about 45 years ago as a young teen, in one of my mother's Readers Digest books. I remember very well the descriptions of learning to drive the horses, Bucky taking the reins, and the story of the Ute Popo. What didn't make impression on me at the time was just how good Giles is at evoking history. There are criticisms of this book that say there's too much description, too much about the stagecoaches and their routes, too much about the history of the supporting characters. Those are exactly the things that fascinated me now. But it's true this is a rather leisurely story without much action until the last 25% of it. In the preface, Giles says that only the Fowlers, Westmorelands, and Popo are fiction and everyone else is real. I spent a lot of time looking up various bits because I wanted to know more. Back then, I loved reading about the stagecoaches because I loved horses and it's still true today. Giles just does a wonderful job of depicting the joy of doing that job and doing it well. The logistics of what the settlers went through to travel are amazing when you think how easy our travel is today. The character's speech and actions pertaining to the Native Americans are not pleasant now but true to the times. Very glad I read it again.

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