Juniper Country [Paperback]

Intro. Can a family that is suspiciously different from its neighbors coexist with them? Can it overcome the prejudices and fears of the mainstream citizenry and build a peaceful, prosperous life? Juniper Country builds the setting for this question, then lets readers answer it for themselves. The story begins with three diverse families settling the remote high desert country of the northern Great Basin in the 1870s West near the future town of Juniper. One of these families, the James, is quite different than the other two. And their lives quickly clash over conflicting goals, heritage, and values, as two generations of these three families battle through the ensuing decades over land, cattle, romance, murder, betrayal, self-discovery, tragedy, and death. Synopsis. The lives of three homesteading families, the Kanes, the Bentons, and the James, who settle the remote high desert range of the northern Great Basin in the 1870s, intertwine to the extreme over the decades as they establish their legacies as cattle ranchers in the developing American West. The Kane family flees their home to start a new life raising cattle on a small homestead in the high desert country. The boy, Everett, grows to become a leading citizen and rancher in the nearby community of Juniper. When his wife and son die from the 1918 flu pandemic, he becomes bitter and relentless in the pursuit of his life-long foe, Rawlins Benton. The Benton family blazed the trail in the cattle business in early Haines County. The patriarch, Calder Benton, founds a mighty ranch in 1872 with extensive holdings backed by financiers from California. He is determined to dominate the cattle business in Haines County and drive out the Kanes and James, and to seize their cherished land. Calder Benton's son, Rawlins, is wild, reckless, and a disappointment to this father. Calder's daughter, Eunice, an intelligent, attractive girl, kindles romantic yearnings in the young Everett Kane. But her hea