Walt Coburn

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Shorty Carroway's breath came in gasps from between a pair of bruised, bleeding lips. His weight resting on the heaving chest of the big man under him, knees jammed into the bulging muscles of that beaten man's forearms, Shorty's full-swung slaps jolted the swollen, battered face. Then the little cowpuncher's hand gripped the shock of hair and raised the big head from the sawdust-covered floor. "Got a plenty?" Shorty shifted his weight to one side and a sharp-roweled, long-shanked spur raked the ribs beneath the big man's heavy mackinaw. He grinned mirthlessly into the bloodshot eyes of the heavyweight champion of the Little Rockies….

In 1886, Robert Coburn bought 30,000 acres of land from Granville Stuart. The tract lay in the long shadows of the Little Rockies of Montana, and Coburn called it a ""cattleman's paradise."" Then the still-remembered blizzard of the following winter erased half of his stock. This is the story of how Coburn overcame long odds, proved that the Circle C was, indeed, the ""paradise"" he envisioned, and emerged as one of the progressive men of Montana.Coburn had a brief but memorable encounter with Chief Joseph of the Nez Perces in 1877. As always in the frontier country, men were sometimes on the side of the law, sometimes on the outside of the law. Among these were Pike Landusky, the notorious Kid Curry and his brothers, Jim Winters, and Charles Siringo. Artist Charles M. Russell was also a visitor to the Circle C.Pioneer Cattleman in Montana will appeal to everyone interested in the ""most colorful, romantic, lawless era in the history of western America.