Trail Drive

17 primary works • 30 total works

The Goodnight Trail

by Ralph Compton

Published 15 August 1992

Former Texas Rangers Benton McCaleb, Will Elliot, and Brazos Gifford ride with Charles Goodnight as he rounds up thousands of ornery, unbranded cattle for the long drive to Colorado. From the Trinity River brakes to Denver, they'll battle endless miles of flooded rivers, parched desert, and whiskey-crazed Comanches. And come face-to- face with Judge Roy Bean and legendary gunslingers like Clay Allison. For McCaleb and his hard-riding crew, the drive is a fierce struggle against the perils of an untamed land. A fight to the finish where the brave reach glory or die hard.

The Old Spanish Trail

by Ralph Compton

Published 1 August 1999

An extraordinary saga of the trail-blazing cowboys who made their fortune driving cattle from Texas to the great frontier. Hard-riding Texans were braving mountains, desert and Indian war-- for the promise of a golden land called California...

Over one million copies of Ralph Compton's Trail Drive novels in print!

Missouri was closed to Texas cattle. Santa Fe was closed by murder. Now, they had one choice: cross desert mountains and hostile Indian land-- to a place called California...

The only riches Texans had left after the Civil War were five million maverick longhorns and the brains, brawn, and boldness to drive them north to where the money was. Now, Ralph, Compton brings this violent and magnificent time to life in an extraordinary epic series based on the history-blazing trail drives.

For the ranchers riding with Rand Hayes, things had gone from bad to worse. The Santa Fe man who'd contracted five thousand head of cattle was dead-- murdered by renegades. Now the Texans had a herd of longhorns and only one choice: cross two mountain ranges and the Mojave Desert to the gold-fevered market at Los Angeles. A trail blazed by ancient Spaniards, this was a route that would lead through a brutal, wondrous land, where a hostile Ute nation was only one danger the cattle drive faced, and California was a shooting war away...

Western Trail

by Ralph Compton

Published 15 December 1992

A stubborn band of hard-driving Texans lock horns with a ruthless railroad baron in a bloody battle for an untamed land. The only riches Texans had left after the Civil War were five million maverick longhorns and the brains, brawn, and boldness to drive them north to where the money was. Now, Ralph Compton brings this violent and magnificent time to life in an extraordinary epic series based on the history blazing trail drives. Benton McCaleb and his band of bold-spirited cowboys brave over a thousand treacherous miles to drive 2400 head of ornery cattle into Wyoming's Sweetwater Valley. They're setting up a ranch just north of Cheyenne when a ruthless railroad baron and his hired killers try to force them off the land. With the help of a Shoshoni Indian tribe and Buffalo Bill Cody, McCaleb and his men vow to stand and fight. Outgunned and outmanned, they'll wage the most ferocious battle of their lives - to win the right to call the land their own.

The Chisholm Trail

by Ralph Compton

Published 15 April 1993

From the Texas brakes to the Canadian River they blazed a trail with courage, blood and tears. The only riches Texans had left after the Civil War were five million maverick longhorns and the brains, brawn and boldness to drive them north to where the money was. Now, Ralph Compton brings this violent and magnificent time to life in an extraordinary epic series based on the history of blazing trail drives. Armed with only a Colt rifle, a Bowie knife and courage as big as the West, Ten Chisholm, the bold, half-breed son of Indian scout Jesse Chisholm, leaves New Orleans with a price on his head. His only crime - loving the beautiful daughter of a powerful New Orleans gambler who has promised her to a wealthy man she hates. With a team of battle-toughened cowboys and ex-soldiers and a vow to return to Priscilla and make her his wife. Ten rides into the harsh Texas brakes and the heart of Comanche country. Now, he must round up wild longhorns and set off across the Red River, through a thousand miles of swollen rivers, angry Comanches and treacherous outlaw attacks - on a brazen quest to open a new trail to Kansas on the savage frontier.

The Bandera Trail

by Ralph Compton

Published 15 September 1993

There were a thousand ways to die on a trail drive through Mexico. The only riches Texans had left after the Civil War were five million maverick longhorns and the brains, brawn and boldness to drive them north to where the money was. Now, Ralph Compton brings this violent and magnificent time to life in an extraordinary epic series based on the history-blazing trail drives. Set on rescuing their old friend, Clay Duval, who is trapped inside war - torn Mexico, Gil and Van Austin, nephews of Texas founder Stephen Austin, cross the border after him and soon discover half of Mexico's army want them dead. Taken prisoner by Santa Anna's soldiers, the brothers make a daring escape and head into Durango country, where they stumble on a valley full of longhorns - and a chance to build a future north of the border. All they have to do now is break Duval out of prison and drive the cattle to safety. But faced with outlaws, soldiers and the cunning plans of a beautiful woman, the Austins are finding out that this isn't a trail drive; it's a war to reach the Bandera Range alive. And the only way to do it is the Texan way - fighting for every bloody, dusty mile ahead.

The California Trail

by Ralph Compton

Published 15 January 1994

Gold fever had hit California, and suddenly the land was full of hungry pioneers. For Gil and Van Austin, two Texas brothers, it meant the chance to sell well-grazed longhorns after years of hard ranching and a treacherous cattle drive up through Mexico. The only trouble was that California was on the other side of a searing desert, swollen rives, a barrage of Indian attacks, and a whole passel of outlaw trouble. And while the Texans and their men were ready and willing to take it all on, there was one thing they weren't prepared for: the ultimate act of treachery and deceit in a land of schemers, dreamers and gold!

The Abilene Trail

by Dusty Richards

Published 7 October 2003

The Shawnee Trail

by Ralph Compton

Published 23 September 1994

The Virginia City Trail

by Ralph Compton

Published 27 January 1995

Through a thousand miles of dust, fists, and guns, they found the courage to keep on driving.

The only riches Texans had left after the Civil War were five million maverick longhorns and the brains, brawn and boldness to drive them north to where the money was. Now, Ralph Compton brings this violent and magnificent time to life in an extraordinary epic series based on the history-making trail drives.

The Virginia City Trail

With a dream of building a ranching empire in Montana, Nelson Story sets off on one of the most extraordinary journeys in frontier history. By his side was a bunch of misfits and renegades-hard-fighting, war-bitten Texans with nothing left to lose. On his tail as the worst kind of enemy-brutal outlaws fixing to bleed his trail drive dry. Pushing his way through four harsh territories and three brutal seasons, Story would defy the Union Army, get a hold of a hundred Remingtons, and take on a thousand riled-up Sioux warriors, before he reached Virginia City-and came face-to-face with the man who wanted him dead...

The Dodge City Trail

by Ralph Compton

Published 24 March 1995

Dodge City was a businessman's dream. And a cattle drive north - with thousands of unbranded long-horns and a remuda of stolen Mexican horses - was a dream of Texans like Dan Ember, who'd come home from the war to find a rich man's hired guns living on his land. Now Dan and his neighbours would risk everything on a drive across the Llano. Along the way, two bands of killers would fight over them, the gunslinger Clay Allison would join up with them, and Quanah Parker's Comanches would try to thwart them - in a bold adventure fuelled by the courage to face death, the price to keep going and the knowledge that now, there was no turning back.

The Oregon Trail

by Ralph Compton

Published 15 June 1995

Lou Spencer, Dillard Sumner, and their fourteen Texas cowboys brought herd up to Independence, Missouri, and sold half to a wagon train heading West. Then the Texans hired on, leading the battling greenhorn pioneers across the Missouri River, through Nebraska Territory, and into the wilds pasts Forts Laramie and Bridger. With winter closing in, Spencer's men are running out of time to reach the wide-open land of Oregan. And with fortune in gold hidden in one of the pilgrims' wooden wagons - and outlaws circling like wolves - there are sure to be miles of shooting and dying still ahead.

The Santa Fe Trail

by Ralph Compton

Published 15 April 1997

An extraordinary saga of the trail-blazing cowboys who made their fortune driving cattle from Texas to the Great Frontier.

They left Missouri and were headed to Santa Fe. Standing in their way was a parched desert, a land of outlaws and enemies-and one man's dangerous past.

He was a wealthy englishman with two beautiful daughters. They were five dusty texans and a gambling man. And they were all on the ride of their lives.

The only riches Texans had left after the Civil War were five million maverick longhorns and the brains, brawn and boldness to drive them north to where the money was. Now, Ralph Compton brings this violent and magnificent time to life in an extraordinary epic series based on the history-making trail drives.

The Santa Fe Trail

Gavin McCord and his brawling cowboys came to Missouri with a problem: 3,500 longhorns and not one buyer. That's where Gladstone Pitkin came in. A man with money and a dream of ranching in New Mexico, Pitkin bought McCord's cattle and hired his Texans for a trail drive from Independence to Santa Fe. But with an ill-fated gambler on the drive, the courageous, hardened riders weren't just a thousand brutal miles from Santa Fe-they were heading into a death trap.

Deadwood Trail

by Ralph Compton

Published 15 January 1999

The Green River Trail

by Ralph Compton

Published 1 April 2007

The year was 1853. For handful of cowboys turned California Gold Rushers, it was time to go home. Then Lonnie Kilgore and his fellow Texans met Western legend and former mountain man Jim Bridger, who told them of a lush range waiting to be claimed in northern Utah. Now, the Texans have purchased land on the Green river and come to San Antonio to gather up some longhorns. But with Indian trouble, law trouble, and woman trouble along for the ride, the cowboys are finding out the truth about this paradise: to live on land you bought and paid for, you have to be willing to die...

The Greenriver Trail

by Ralph Compton

Published 1 December 1999

The Dakota Trail

by Ralph Compton

Published 1 April 2002

The Bozeman Trail

by Ralph Compton and Robert Vaughan

Published 3 September 2002

Ralph Compton The Badlands Trail

by Lyle Brandt and Ralph Compton

Published 7 July 2020

In this thrilling new installment in bestseller Ralph Compton's Trail Drive series, Toby Bishop and the drovers of the Circle K ranch will have to battle the elements, wild animals, rough terrain, and dangerous people to get their longhorn herd to their destination.

The drovers of Circle K ranch have to drive the herd of beautiful longhorn cattle five hundred miles northwest to Missouri if they hope to make it through the next year. Toby Bishop, a jack-of-all-trades and drifter, will have to work with the mixed group of drovers, whether they are white, black, Hispanic, lifelong cowboys, drifters, or shamed preachers. On the trail, drovers must set aside their differences in favor of a common goal.

As they go north, Bishop finds himself tested: physically by the rigors of the trail; and mentally, by the grim memories evoked by the violence necessary to protect the herd. But if they are to make it all the way to St. Louis, he'll have to call on every skill and ounce of knowledge he's acquired in his checkered and violent past to overcome the unexpected obstacles threatening the drive.

Ralph Compton Big Jake's Last Drive

by Robert J. Randisi and Ralph Compton

Published 2 June 2020

Two old ranch hands lead one last trail drive but they can't escape death along the way in a brand new thrilling western in Ralph Compton's trail drive series.

Big Jake Motley had been running the Big M spread in Texas for over 30 years. In that time, he's driven thousands of head of cattle to market in Kansas. Now, while both the Nineteenth century and the era of trail drive are coming to an end, Big Jake is determined to make one last drive to Kansas. The only thing is, he doesn't have the cowhands to move that much beef. He drafts his old friend, Chance McCandles, into service, and together, the two aging cowboys put together a crew.

The trail to Kansas is fraught with dangers both natural and man made, but when Chance is killed by rustlers, Big Jake has one more task in before him, extract vengeance for his old friend.

The Compton Collection

by Ralph Compton

Published 8 May 2012