Buffalo Palace: The Plainsmen by Terry C. Johnston

From the Publisher

In Buffalo Palace, the young Titus Bass sights, and then sets out into, the vast Rocky Mountain country, where he has his initial experiences with trapping beaver, surviving the freezing winter, fighting fierce Indians and even fiercer fellow mountain men, and celebrating at the hard-earned summer rendezvous. Most memorably, we walk with Titus as he first sees the immense herd which originally fueled his wanderlust, and now feeds, clothes and houses the frontier's pioneers, when he reaches the country lovingly called the "Buffalo Palace."

Publishers Weekly

Frontier adventurer Titus Bass is back for a fifth wrangle in Johnston's ongoing saga. In 1825 St. Louis, Titus snaps out of the drunken lethargy he fell into in Dance on the Wind (1995) and finally heads west toward the mountains, plains and buffalo he has always dreamed of. Traveling alone, Titus revels in the quiet solitude and freedom of the open prairie and wide skies, but he is always wary of unknown dangers. Afoot after losing his horses, he is rescued by a trio of rough and tumble beaver trappers who take him in and teach him how to survive in the wild. Titus and his trapper pals wander over the plains and mountains, trapping beaver and hunting game, trying to keep their scalps from being lifted by ferocious Blackfeet and Arapaho. Meeting other trappers and traders at an annual rendezvous, the unwashed mountain men trade their beaver pelts for a bath, whiskey, squaws and supplies, and their solitary lives for a few days of drunken companionship. Through clouds of flint-tipped arrows and black-powder gunsmoke, Titus thrives until treachery spoils his idyll. Rich in historical lore and dramatic description, this is a first-rate addition to a solid series, a rousing tale of one man's search for independence in the unspoiled beauty of the old West. (Oct.)

Library Journal

Taking up where he left off in Dance on the Wind (LJ 7/95) Johnston sends Titus Bass from St. Louis up the Missouri and Platte to the Rockies, where he joins a trio of fur trappers. Their sadistic leader initiates the greenhorn into the frontier equivalent of "might makes right," beating him savagely when Titus confronts him about pilfering his beaver pelts. Too inexperienced to go it alone, Titus remains with them until the others raft their pelts downriver, abandoning him. Surviving brushes with hostile Indians, he links up with other trappers. The story ends abruptly when, set upon by Blackfeet Indians, Titus is saved by friendly Shoshones, portending a further installment. For the most part well researched, this novel falters only when Johnston digresses at length to summarize events in Dance on the Wind. Recommended for public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 8/96.]Robert P. Jordan, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City

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