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The Never-Ending Lives of Liver-Eating Johnson

He lived his many lives to the fullest--first as a farmer and then as a sailor, enlisted man, Naval deserter, Army scout, Union soldier, Indian fighter, teamster, gold miner, hunter, trapper, whiskey-smuggler, woodsman, guide, deputy, trader, constable, log-cabin builder, and whatever else he could think of to survive within the arms of the rugged and brutally unforgiving western frontier known as the Rocky Mountains.

A massive man for his day at just under six feet tall and weighing more than 230 pounds, Johnson was a gentle giant and a wailing banshee, meek as a lamb and mean as a cougar. He was an enigma for his time, the best of a disappearing breed--Jim Bridger, Jedediah Smith, Grizzly Adams, and Kit Carson all rolled into one. He audaciously helped tame the West and civilize a nation. Wherever he traveled, his .56-caliber Hawken rifle, along with his Wade & Butcher Bowie knife and Walker Colt pistol, were never far from reach. Along his western travails, he dodged arrows, bullets, fists, severe weather, and wild animals until the frailty of old age finally brought him down. But not before he had avenged the murders of his Flathead Indian wife and unborn daughter, savage acts of butchery that sent Johnson on a quarter-century vendetta against the whole Crow Nation--the tribe responsible for the deaths. - A Work in Progress