Wilderness Brothers: Prospecting, Horse Packing, & Homesteading [first edition]

Wilderness Brothers is a work of non-fiction dealing with western US history from the mid-1860s through the 1960s in the region ranging from Colorado to California, but it is especially focused on Idaho from about 1890 to 1910. The book traces the lives of Luman Caswell, his two brothers Ben and Dan, and their close associates A. O. Huntley and Wesley Ritchey during the time leading up to and following their discovery of gold on Thunder Mountain. It includes a 2500-mile odyssey, by buckboard wagon and horseback, from western Colorado, across Utah and Nevada and into Idaho. Thunder Mountain is located in central Idaho within the present day Frank Church Wilderness. The Thunder Mountain stampede of the early 1900s (which the Caswells triggered) was the last major gold rush in the region. However, the emphasis of this account is on self reliance and day-to-day activities and adventures of the times, rather than on the rush per se. Wilderness Brothers captures the spirit of the times from a different perspective than other books of this genre, to document several poorly-known aspects of the history of the region, and to provide a record of land-use practices prior to designation as “wilderness.” Although it is set mainly in Idaho, many of the same kinds of events were occurring throughout the western US and Canada during this period. Many readers of western US history, from those with general interest to professional scholars, will be interested in this book.