It was called the "wild and woolly West" with good reason. The hard-working, trail-breaking pioneers had been followed by hordes of lawless characters in search of easy ways to make a dollar.

Hays City! Dodge City! Abilene! Decent people found it hard to live in any of them. Gang rule was the only law and lives and property were in constant danger. 

Lawlessness and disorder ceased when soft-voiced, yellow-haired Bill Hickok clipped the "wild" from the name of the "wild and woolly West" and added it to his own. It was "Wild Bill" Hickok, fearless and strong-willed, who tamed the roughest, rawest, toughest towns on the western frontier.

Before that, Hickok's life had already been filled with adventure. Worker on the Mississippi River boats, member of the Underground Railroad, Union spy and scout during the Civil War, stage driver and plainsman, Hickok had known few dull moments. In this account of his life we read also of his friendships with "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Kit Carson, General Custer, and other men whose names are associated with the history of our country's westward growth.

For those who enjoy reading a story of the West as it really was, Stewart Holbrook has provided the perfect book.

From the dust jacket