Buffalo Palace

Titus Bass #2

by Terry C. Johnston

In Buffalo Palace, the young Titus Bass sights, and then sets out into, the vast Rocky Mountain country, where he has his initial experiences with trapping beaver, surviving the freezing winter, fighting fierce Indians and even fiercer fellow mountain men, and celebrating at the hard-earned summer rendezvous. Most memorably, we walk with Titus as he first sees the immense herd which originally fueled his wanderlust, and now feeds, clothes and houses the frontier's pioneers, when he reaches the country lovingly called the "Buffalo Palace."

Genres: Westerns, Historical Fiction, Historical

576 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Terry C. Johnston was born January 1, 1947 in Arkansas City, Kansas.
Nineteen publishers rejected Johnston's first novel, Carry the Wind, before it was printed in 1982. However, this first novel was to gain the honor of receiving the Western Writers of America Medicine Pipe Bearer's Award for best first fiction. Johnston is known for his eye for historical detail, and he is a stickler for accuracy. He is known for traveling and exploring down known and unknown dusty roads during the hot summer months, and traversing slippery, muddy roads and hiking through snow to stand upon a historical sight that he would tell his readers in an upcoming book. "Parking in the lower lot, I trudged up the hill to reach the spot where Colonel John Gibbon's infantry waited out the last hours before their attack on the unsuspecting camp. Standing there in the icy snowstorm I was totally overwhelmed by the sight of those skeletal cones of lodgepoles standing stark against the low, gray sky . . ." Some of the sites that he would stand upon were known to the world like the Little Big Horn Battlefield and others would be obscure to the average reader like the Weippe Prairie north of Lochsa. He is known to combine "a roaring good tale with fascinating insights into the lives and times of his principal characters, generally managing to employ his extensive knowledge to enhance a story rather than intrude upon it" (Whitehead, 1991). Johnston would say that he considered himself "not a literary writer but a storyteller." His desire was to reach and teach thousands if not millions of readers about the early western frontier.

He accomplished part of this goal, not only through his books, but through discussions given to elementary children, lectures at symposiums, and historical one-week tours "during which you will re-live the grit and blood, the tears and tragedy of the great Indian Wars." He would blend historical fact with human emotion to re-create the past during his historical tours each summer. One presentation he gave to a fourth grade class was about the Plains Indian culture. He held a discussion with a Honors English class in Castle Rock middle school about "research, writing, and editing that goes into producing two historical novels each year, when compared to their "term papers." He gave keynote speeches at seminars and lectures at symposiums. He traveled all around Montana to sign books for fans, and he signed the books at the local Albertson's in each town. He held radio interviews that "took me into cities, talking before audiences, I never would have managed to reach otherwise."

Reviews

[Joe L]

Terry C Johnston delivers again. We’ll written and with historically accurate places to boot. He really did his homework with places and geography.
Thankfully I still have 7 books to go in this series. I’ll spread them out so it’s not over too quickly haha.
A must read for any western reader or even someone that loves great historical fiction or both.

[Jeff Morris]

What a great book. The detail of the trapping and the glorious expansive shining mountains make you fell like you are there. The younger Titus Bass is learning the ways of a mountain man. Read this one twice.

[Vlad]

Great book!

Great book about trapping in the wild and wonderful West. Exciting and touching and enlightening. I recommend this to anyone that likes a good tale of adventure.

[Debbie Higgins]

Great second book in the Titus Bass narrative. Very detailed. You feel like you are there.
But sometimes it gets to be too much detail.
Love them anyway.

[Larry Embling]

This the second book in the Titus Bass series and while very detailed and at times a little slow, still a hard book to put down. Johnston does a remarkable job of combining historical facts wrapped around a fictional character. My advice at this juncture? Do not read this series out of its intended order.

[Steve]

This book continues the adventures of Titus Bass and is a detailed account of how he sets off to become a mountain man. From the details here, you could probably learn to set your beaver trap. Real page-turner.

[Trent L]

Johnston puts you in the moment, as if you're sensing everything the characters feel. It's a great story and the series is a wonderful saga of a man living as a trapper during the beaver trade years.

[Georgia Brown]

Favourite western ever. Love this guys clear understanding of this time, does the rough tough guy thing without it being a request to be racist as fuck. Describes nature with respect and honour without being wanky.

[Michael]

Ol Scratch trapping beaver and killing indians

Book 2 even better than Book 1. Scratch is in the Rockies trapping and living the free trapper life...excellent book.

[Dan Reese]

Badassness as always!

[Don Sheppard]

Terry Johnston at his best

It's the third of fourth time reading the titus bass series.now on to crack in the sky.the best series I've ever read.

[Daniel Burton]

Great story

Terrific story youth and a new land. Great story telling ,A well laid out story of the struggles of old.

[Carol]

Great adventure

[Ira Clevenger]

Book was a good read although a little difficult at times as it was written using the speech of the early 19th century.

[Steven]

I'm thoroughly enjoying the adventures of Titus Bass. My only complaint is Johnston's need to continually remind us about things that have already happened. But I'm looking forward to the next book.

[Robert Kaul]

Not for me ! too much whoring and drinking. No action, terrible narration

[Lisa]

Read this because I remember my dad liked it so well. It's a trapper story with intricate detail. I prefer to read books with less detail, leaving my imagination to explore, and I ended up skimming some paragraphs. All in all, it was a decent book if you like the old old West genre.

[Pa]

This is a book about mountain men in the American west in the years around 1825. The story drags a bit in spots, but is generally a worthwhile read and it give a good impression of both the day-to-day hard work and boredom of beaver trapping, and the occasional terror of hostile savages. The hero is by no means a superman, and he certainly takes his licks.

[Marianne]

I was captivated by the grandeur of this story. The writing is superb. Brought to mind the sweeping stories of Africa by Wilbur Smith.

[Deb]

I unexpectedly enjoyed this story of historical fiction about the beaver fur trade.