Tom W. Blackburn

Spencer Stanton's word was law. He had killed many to win his vast cattle spread, and would do anything fair or foul to keep it. Every ranchhand, every neighboring landowner, every roaming Indian tribe new better than to cross this man's power, this man's pride.

A RICH LAND When the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill set the whole of America mad, brave men and cut-throats swarmed over California to claim their fortune, build an empire, and add a new star to the flag of the growing United States. A BIG MAN Mike McGann was born tough and grew up tough in the Irish slums of the Boston water-front, his only tutors the thieves and sailors of the docks. When he jumped ship at Monterey, the Spanish capital of California, all he had were the poker winnings in his pocket, a brass nerve, and an appetite for gold and power. It wasn't long before the ran head-on into the proud Spanish aristocrats who held the land in feudal domain. But before he was through, Mike McGann would carve himself a reputation as the...Sierra Baron.