Mountain Grown

By: Johny Weber

In the mountains at the southern edge of Wyoming Territory, three families banded together in the mid-1800s and formed a community, raising livestock and garden produce. The founding family, the Welles, took excess livestock to trade with the pioneers along the Oregon Trail.

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Book Description

In the mountains at the southern edge of Wyoming Territory, three families banded together in the mid-1800s and formed a community, raising livestock and garden produce. The founding family, the Welles, took excess livestock to trade with the pioneers along the Oregon Trail. This is the story of those families and the young people that are coming of age.

Central to the story is Jake Bates Welles, the oldest son of Sabra Welles and her first husband, Blue Knife, a Ute warrior. Now the adopted son of Kade Welles, Sabra’s second husband, Jake walks between two cultures. Jake grew up with his white family yet spends his summers trading with the Ute and living in the Colorado mountain cabin of his late grandfather, Jacob Bates and spending time in his half-brother, Brown Otter’s village.

Jake has many obstacles to overcome outside the ranch as a half white and half Ute man, but within his community, Jake has earned the respect of everyone. This is Jake’s story.

Where does he fit into this world? Where does a man like Jake find a wife? What are the obstacles that stand in his way as he makes his way on the American frontier? The changes coming to the land, to the Ute’s, and to the ranch that these families named Twin Peaks is a frontier story of perseverance, solidarity, and love.

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