Ouray's Peak

By: Leigh Podgorski

The journey of runaway Kristin Tabor that takes her cross country and deep within the Rocky Mountains in search of the mother who disappeared without word or warning and leads her to discover her Ute Indian heritage and eventually her heart.

Buy This Book

Book Description

As Kristin Tabor stood atop Ouray's Peak at the moment of her final quest she pondered.

The history of the massacre of White River, Colorado of 1879 provides the backdrop for the story of the Tabor family in contemporary times. When family matriarch Christiana Tabor lies dying, she implores her daughter Christine to contact the Ute Shaman Sowowic to guide her passing. Christine Tabor does so, awakening her long buried heritage.

The awakening ruptures the Tabor household: Mickey Tabor, Christine's husband cannot nor will not understand the longing created in his wife. Tensions in the once happy household escalate with brother, Jamie, and sister, Kristin, caught between two immovable forces, until one day, without explanation or preamble, Christine Tabor is gone.

Mickey Tabor begins a long slow slide into alcoholism, secrets, and violence. What once was a close relationship between Kristin and Jamie grows strained and distant. Jamie, once Kristin's hero, seems to align with his father. One day challenging her father's strict admonitions and Jamie's repeated warnings, Kristin breaks open the lock to her father's room.

There, she finds the w'ni thokunup—a Ute musical instrument given to her mother by her grandmother-- and her mother's letters. Mickey finds Kristin, and attacks her brutally. When Jamie comes home from hockey practice, he stumbles ashen upon the scene, and rushes Kristin to the hospital. Unconscious, Kristin dreams of her mother and grandmother. Upon her return from the hospital, she leaves home for good.

Buy This Book