“Saving Yellowstone” views the landscape through new lens

Prologue

Lost

The  Cut,  Montana  Territory.  October  1870.

The dog stopped along the trail ahead of him, growling. Yellowstone Jack Baronett reined in his horse and dismounted, taking his gun from the saddle. He soon saw what had captured the dog’s attention: an animal was dragging itself slowly up the side of the Cut, a narrow canyon through the Gallatin Mountains leading to the Yellowstone Basin beyond. A black bear, Jack thought, possibly wounded. He approached warily, his feet crunching on the hard crust of three-day snow. Drawing closer, he could see that it was not a bear. It was a man.

He was crawling on his knees and elbows and making a low, groaning noise. His clothes were in tatters, his long beard matted. His fingers curled into claws. The skin on his face and arms was…