Forty Years on the Frontier

An authentic account of pioneering, prospecting, and community building in the northern Rockies and Great Plains in the second half of the nineteenth century.

In 1852, the author (1834-1918) traveled with his brother and their father to the Sacramento Valley of California, where they spent five years mining for gold and served in the Rogue River War. In 1857 he and his brother started back to Iowa but were delayed by the outbreak of war between the Utah Mormons and the United States.

There is no other pioneer record of this section quite like it.—American Historical Review

When originally published in 1925, one reviewer called Forty Years on the Frontier "the odyssey of a nineteenth-century Ulysses." In 1852, Granville Stuart (1834–1918) traveled with his brother and their father to the Sacramento Valley of California, where they spent five years mining for gold and served in the Rogue River War. In 1857 he and his brother started back to Iowa but were delayed by the outbreak of war between the Utah Mormons and the United States.

After relocating to Montana’s Deer Lodge Valley, the Stuarts found gold, and news of their discovery sparked the first Montana gold rush in 1862. Stuart was instrumental in developing the Montana cattle industry and was a leader of the vigilantes who captured and executed numerous horse thieves in the summer of 1884. Stuart's edited reminiscences are a priceless and authentic account of pioneering, prospecting, and community building in the northern Rockies and Great Plains.