ON THE WESTERN TRAIL, the seventh book in the Western Quest Series, follows the rough and tumble life of Aaron Lloyd Turner as the burgeoning cattle business reaches its zenith and gradual decline to something more like what we know today. Aaron and his friends hit their stride in the cattle business busting maverick cattle out of the wild lands along the far reaches of the Colorado River at the very edge of frontier Texas and driving the wild hardy longhorns up the newly opened Western Trail to Dodge City, Kansas, the Babylon of the Plains. They battled Indians and nature itself to get there. But change was already in the wind. Windmills and water wells expanded the vast areas of previously unusable prairie to grazing. Barbed wire established boundaries of ownership and made gathering far-flung herds a thing of the past. It also gave the cattlemen the opportunity to fence good English bulls with their longhorns resulting in much better and earlier maturing animals. But the final nail in the coffin of the wild and wooly days of the cattle drive was the arrival of the railroad across Texas. Cattle drives that had taken three or four months could be made in a one to a few days. New towns, such as Abilene, Texas, replaced Dodge City. The ever adaptable Aaron was a leader in implementing these changes and establishing for generations yet unborn a new type of sustainable ranching in Texas. Aaron also comes into his own as a man. He discovers his inner strength and values and his natural leadership shines through, even as he wrestles with inner demons. He meets and marries, Ella, the love of his life. Finding a foundation that will sustain him through his long life, he rediscovers a relationship with God as a grown man, replacing the war shattered doubts of his youth. STEPHEN L. TURNER is a fifth generation Texan, sixth generation Arkansan and eighth generation American. He is a graduate of Texas Tech School of Medicine, and has worked as a pediatrician in rural Plainview, Texas since 1984. He is married with two married children. Injuries have forced his retirement from ranching and training horses. He is a member of Sons of the Confederacy, Hood's Texas Brigade Association, the Texas Genealogical Society, and the Western Writers of America. He is also the author of OUT OF THE WILDERNESS, ON THE CAMINO REAL, UNDER TROUBLED SKIES, RIDE FOR THE LONE STAR, ON THE ROAD TO GLORY, and UP FROM THE ASHES, all from Sunstone Press.
