The Bone Hunters

In this armchair adventurer's great escape, paleontology professor and Civil War cavalry veteran Benjamin Franklin Randolph leads an 1871 scientific expedition into the rugged badlands of the American West to dig into the earth's crust for the fossilized remains of extinct creatures. Ben Randolph and his party of college age volunteers from the East are escorted by soldiers and accompanied by the young, outspoken suffragette daughter of an army colonel and her chaperone who makes Calamity Jane look like a prissy school marm. These bone hunters experience arduous travel in challenging terrain, extreme weather conditions, hostile Indians, a dangerous outlaw gang, and indigenous pests and predators. The story is not all hardship, however. Our scholarly explorers celebrate the thrill of discovery, the wonders of nature, a sense of camaraderie, and occasions of humor. The paleontologic discoveries, methods, and locations are historically accurate, as are historical events and period culture. To add to the authenticity, real frontier figures play relevant roles in the story, including Buffalo Bill Cody, George Armstrong Custer, Russian Grand Duke Alexis, and Lakota Sioux warrior Pawnee Killer.