Nate: The Texas Story (The Nate Champion Duology Part 1) —publishing July 24
Nate: The Wyoming Story (The Nate Champion Duology Part 2) — publishing Aug-27
NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER EVERYWHERE BOOKS ARE SOLD!
Nate: The Texas Story
One of the Old West’s most heroic figures is also history’s best-kept secret-and he’s finally getting his due in this Western historical fiction duology.
Nate Champion’s humble beginnings in Texas prepared him for a life with horses and cattle. Though a well-known horse trainer in his own time, he holds the simple aspiration of running his own cattle ranch, a dream he carries to Wyoming Territory as the Johnson County Range War drags him into its clutches and climaxes in one of the most impressive last stands of American history.
Book one follows Nate’s formative years in Round Rock, Texas, where he makes his reputation as a competent cowboy, experiences heartbreak, and forms lasting friendships that weave into his future in unexpected ways. Like all youth of his time, he learns the hard-won lessons of experience as he encounters both the good and the corrupt, including the notorious Sam Bass gang.
Read along as, in this jaw-dropping tale, the culmination of Nate Champion’s life lessons in Texas become the foundation for the enduring legacy he achieves in Wyoming. His story is a narrative that every American should know.
Nate, The Wyoming Story
Nate Champion strikes out to Wyoming Territory and discovers the allure of the Powder River Basin as an ideal location for raising cattle. First he must build up a bankroll by hiring out to the cattle companies already established there. Earning a reputation as a top hand, as a uniquely gifted horse trainer, and as a man of his word, he becomes one of the few men in the territory whom the small ranchers can trust.
The largest herds in Wyoming belong to investors from the East and from England, who, because of the size of their herds, monopolize the “free range” guaranteed by the government. In time, these barons feel a tacit ownership of all the land, and they devise ways to exert that ownership by having the backing of powerful interests not only in local law and media, but in Washington, D. C. as well. The Wyoming Stock Growers Association is their front, and through this corrupt entity the rich owners declare themselves omnipotent. They make their own laws . . . and they enforce them.
When the Association begins to eliminate small ranchers through ghastly executions, the classic battle lines form between the rich man and the commoner. Because he is trusted, Nate Champion becomes a rallying point for the oppressed, and this leads to his name topping a list of inconvenient ranchers whom the barons want to see removed from the face of the Earth.
Lecture Program Overview
Program: Nate Champion and the Johnson County War, 1892 – a lecture and slide presentation
A young Texas cowhand travels to Wyoming to stake his claim as an independent rancher. Nate Champion finds himself thrown into the crucible of the Johnson County War. This program reveals one of America’s most egregious acts of insurrection and how one man prevented the crime of the century and became a martyr to the common laborer. Warren’s years of research reveal why Western scholars consider Nate Champion to be one of the unsung heroes of American history. Join us to find out what conditions were like in Wyoming in the late nineteenth century that turned Nate Champion into a martyr for the small independent ranchers of the West.
We are currently booking for this new lecture on the fascinating Johnson County War. To book Mr. Warren for a lecture, contact his publicist at markwarrenbooks(at)att.net.
Wyoming Lecture Tour
Dates and Venues:
Sept. 18 at 2:00 p.m. in Spearfish, SD at the High Plains Western Heritage Center
Sept. 19 at 7:00 p.m. in Gillette, WY at the Rockpile Museum
Sept. 20 at 6:30 p.m. in Buffalo, WY at the Johnson County Library
Sept. 21 at 2:00 p.m. in Douglas, WY at the Pioneer Memorial Museum
Sept. 22 at 1:00 p.m. in Casper, WY at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center
Sept. 23 at 6:30 p.m. in Lander, WY at the Pioneer Museum
Sept 27 at 5:30 p.m. in Cody, WY at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West