A Hard Won Life: A Boy on His Own on the Montana Frontier

A Hard Won Life is a true story of bravery, determination, and one boy's embodiment of the spirit of Montana during the late 1800s.

Told in Fred Van Blaricom's affable voice, this coming-of-age story packed with adventures is grounded in the remarkable lives of the earliest homesteaders - men and women of the Lower Yellowstone.

Meet young Teddy Roosevelt, famed buffalo hunter Vic Smith, saloon owners, devious outlaws, and persistent sheriffs.

Working as a cowboy, young Freddie broke horses, helped catch a horsethief, survived the cattle-killing winter of 1886, and at age ten rode alone 100 miles to work on a ranch in the Dakota Territories.

A Hard Won Life is meticulously researched and superbly written, making it a must-read for anyone interested in historical fiction or the spirit of Montana.