Angel Valley Gold

About the Book

South of the new city of Denver in the Colorado territory lay Angel Valley, sacred land of the Arapahoe Indians. To Chet Ryerson and Tom Forsyth, it was range land and they intended to move on to it. Their ranches, the Double R and the Lone Pine, grew quickly and flourished dispute the Arapahoe’s efforts to keep them out of the valley. Little did they know that a long dead Mountain Man’s legacy, written on a cave wall, and not the Arapahoes, would  bring their cattle empires close to ruin.

Joel Stratford, Ryerson’s foreman, was the first to hear the rumors that years before an old Mountain Man named Ezekial Flanders had struck gold on the slopes of  nearby Sawtooth Peak. It was also said that Flanders had died before he could bring his treasure out of the mountains, which aroused Stratford’s curiosity. Quite by accident, Tom Forsyth discovers Flanders’ legacy on a cave wall, charcoal streaks of seemingly related lines among depictions of ancient fossils, like those embedded in the surrounding mountainous landscape. He is sure that the drawing is a diagram that will lead him to Flanders gold, if only he could decipher it. Keeping this knowledge to himself, he is mysteriously murdered and the clues leading to Flanders’ gold die with him. Or did they? Could a child like sketch he left behind, hidden away and discovered by his beautiful widow, provide a lead? Stratford was sure that the sketch was tied directly to the old mountain man and held the key to finding his gold.

Meanwhile, powerful outside forces conspire to uncover Zeke Flanders’ treasure. Through treachery and deceit, these outsiders plot to drive the ranchers out of Angel Valley, steal away the mystifying sketch, unravel its meaning and seize Flanders’ gold for themselves. The lure of vast riches had come uninvited into the lives of the Double B and Lone Pine ranchers. Wanting only to be left in peace, they are faced with an enemy intent on destroying everything they had built.

The race to find Flanders’ gold is one of interwoven plots involving Stratford, the captivating widow Jan Forsyth, a ruthless tycoon and his sidekick, a pitiless gunman, and the cynical Territorial Governor. Always lurking nearby is the inscrutable Arapahoe chief, Red Moon, who uses the white man for his own purposes. Throughout, Stratford fights the ghost of Zeke Flanders to the surprising conclusion among the high peaks that tower over Angel Valley.

About the Author

Robert Tague has developed an intimate knowledge of the old American West, from the early Mountain Men to the American cowboy. During his extensive travels through valleys, plains and high country, he absorbed the many echoes of the historic past. Backpacking the mountains, deserts and trails of early settlers and cattlemen, he acquired a rich understanding of the western spirit of long ago.