Buckskin Man: A Novel of Davy Cockett Days by the man who "launched the Crockett craze." -Oakland Tribune - Paperback

by Tom W. Blackburn (Author)

ONE MAN AGAINST THE RUTHLESS POWER OF THE SANTA FE TRADE EMPIRE

"TOP flight storytelling." Springfield MO Leader and Press

The Mexican War was over, and in its bloody wake came the trappers, the traders, the outlaws. Spanish and Anglo kept uneasy peace as fortunes were made and lost almost overnight in Santa Fe.

The profit motive destroyed the weak and emboldened the strong, pitted the ruthless power of the big merchants against the wildness and cunning of the mountain men.

...The long hand of Edouard Duval reached from St. Louis to Santa Fe. Duval was a big man; he didn't have to soil his own hands with his dirty work. But he took pleasure in picturing the results.

Especially when he thought of Jim King-full of liquor, stumbling to his room behind his store. Too full of liquor to smell the smoke, helped by lamp oil, curling slowly around $38,000 in fur pelts. . . .

When King came to-if he did-it would be too late. Duval would have one less competitor.

But for all their cleverness, Duval & Co. didn't know the buckskin men. They underestimated Jim King. . . .

This is the story of Jim King, mountain man.

"If you like a story of the West by a writer who knows the West, its legends and mechanics as well as the spirit of its people, this is your special dish, a real treat, a super Western, by Tom W. Blackburn well-written." The Montgomery AL Advertiser

"Buckskin Man is set in New Mexico soon after the war between Mexico and the USA and the resultant acquisition of the territory by the USA. Tensions are running high between the Americans and the Mexicans - especially the landowning class among the latter. Ex-fur trapper Jim King moves into the territory intent on establishing himself as a leading player in the fur trade but to do so he must challenge the monopoly of Edourdo Duval, a legalized thug who has an iron grip on the trade thanks to the strong arm tactics of his henchman Luis Sebastien. Arson is employed against King and he strikes back by appropriating Duval's property to the value of the goods destroyed. The stakes are continually raised and include Duval inciting an armed insurrection against American interests in the region, while King calls in his former mountain men allies. The author was married to a woman of Mexican origin and presents a balanced view of the tensions in the area at the time. It has two strong female figures - Dolores Portola the daughter of the leading rancher in the area and Duval's mortal enemy Toni a sort of double agent in the Duval camp. A lively and action filled read for genre lovers, Helped by its relatively unique time setting, just after the 1844 war. The book is a lively affair with lots of incident and action." Amazon 5 Star Review

Thomas W. Blackburn's scripts for the Disney Davey Crockett miniseries of the mid-50s (which still runs on the Disney+ streaming site and the Disney Channel) and his lyrics for the world-famous "Ballad of Davy Crockett" song "launched the Crockett craze." Oakland Tribune

TOM W. BLACKBURN was a highly-successful western writer having penned over 300 stories (written in a ten year period) for magazines like The Saturday Evening Post, Argosy, Ranch Romances, Colliers, and the pulps. He came by his knowledge of the West honestly having been born on the T.O. Ranch in New Mexico, where his father was employed as an engineer installing a ranch-wide irrigation system. Afterward his father remained in Colorado and Wyoming working at various jobs - including town marshal. No wonder the Springfield (MO) News-Leader hailed his westerns as "authentic and realistic."

Buckskin Man, based on real events, is one of his most enthralling novels.