.
This Calder Range is a tale set in Post-Civil War U.S.A. It tells about the ordeals passed through by
cowboys in the face of limited technology. This realistic view is tempered with tales of love and family. Benteen Calder is an ambitious young man who is not content with his father’s declining outfit and decides to set out for the wild untamed land of Montana, where the grass is good and land is free. Thus he gathers together a few head of longhorn cattle and sets out for the unknown. He does not do this alone however; first he marries his sweetheart Lorna. Lorna is a middle class child, heavily protected before her marriage and lacking any understanding of the hardships of life. Besides she is also quite young. Suffice it to say that she bore the brunt of the hardships of crossing dessert land in a wagon quite worse than the others, as she is quite unused to such a life. Lorna’s naiveté often got on Benteen’s nerves, while Benteen’s hard attitude often got on hers. There was a lot of adventure on the way: days without water, when Lorna used her drinking water to water her roses; a near attack by American Indians where Benteen’s bargaining skill saved the day; a night with a woman and her husband whom the land had been unkind to; even the death of some cowboys after which Lorna had to wear trousers and herd cattle. They finally passed through Dodge City and with more time arrived their destination. When they arrived Benteen lay claim on a stretch of land as far as their eyes could see. Benteen was to spend the rest of his life defending this land and the cattle within it. With time Lorna had two children. One however, was killed by marauders. Benteen does not take this lying down, he gets his revenge and a street shootout ensues. Bull Giles, a friend of Lorna’s gets paralyzed in this shootout. This incident was after Benteen met his long lost mother. With his astuteness and business sense, Benteen became a great success and the TripleC outfit the biggest and best in Montana. The Calder name became a legend of its own. While all this success was going on Benteen and Lorna went through many tests of their live and became the better and stronger for it. The epilogue was a summary of how successful the Calder’s had been: their range, which spread as far as the eyes could see was filled with cattle, they had a sensible son to carry out their legacy, they had friends to celebrate with and family to visit back in Texas, most of all, Lorna and Benteen Calder were still as much in love as they had been on their wedding night.
Published: February 22, 2008
More summaries by TojuEnofeDaniels
More