James A. Michener · 1974 · river

The fur-trade thread of James Michener's 1974 saga of the Colorado plains. Pasquinel, a French-Canadian coureur de bois, paddles his canoe up the Missouri and the shallow Platte from St Louis into the high plains, trading with the Arapaho chief Lame Beaver, taking an Arapaho wife, and ranging on to the mountain rendezvous as the beaver are hunted toward extinction.

1. 1
   St Louis

   Pasquinel sets off alone up the river, a Frenchman in a canoe, to trap and trade on the far plains.

2. 2
   The Forks of the Platte

   Up the Missouri and the Platte to the forks, where the river divides north and south.

3. 3
   The South Platte

   Up the shallow South Platte into the Colorado plains, where he meets the Arapaho chief Lame Beaver and takes Clay Basket as his wife.

4. 4
   Bear Lake Rendezvous

   And on over the mountains to the great trappers' rendezvous, even as the beaver trade dies.