Goodreads asked Stephen Darley:

What are you currently working on?

Stephen Darley I am finishing my new book on the life and times of Miles Morris Goodyear who was the founder of Ogden, Utah. Miles grew up in Connecticut and at the age of 17 he left Connecticut for the Rocky Mountain west. For his first years in the west he was a mountain man/fur trapper. He went on to establish the first permanent settlement in the Great Basin of Utah which became the City of Ogden. He married a Native American wife and had two children. He sold his fort to the Mormon settlers and used the money to buy a herd of over 200 horses in California. He took his herd to Missouri to sell to the U.S. Army but by the time he got there the Mexican war had ended and the California gold rush had started. Realizing that he could get the best price for his herd back in California, he returned his herd back to California. His trek with his herd was the longest movement of horses in western history consisting of 4000 miles. He died in the gold fields of California at the age of 32.

flag