Plot
Silver Canyon takes place in modern-day San Juan County, just east of the Colorado River, in what is today the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and the Canyon Rims Recreation Area, not many miles upstream from Hite, Utah, which is mentioned in the story. The plot revolves around a young rider and gunfighter, Matt Brennan, who drifts into the town of Hattan's Point and immediately falls in love with a local rancher's daughter, Moira Maclaren. The town and the area around it are dominated by two large ranches, the Boxed M owned by Rud Maclaren, Moira's father, and the CP Ranch owned by the Pinder brothers. With a reason to stay in the area, Brennan buys into the Two-Bar Ranch, owned by old man Ball. The Two-Bar is sandwiched between the Pinder and Maclaren Ranches, and being squeezed out, as the two bigger ranches prepare for their showdown with each other.
Setting
L'Amour demonstrates knowledge of the terrain. Some of the key features:
Hattan's Point, both the mesa and the town, are located on what is today called Middle Point, approximately 12 miles east and 5 north of Hite, above Cataract Canyon on the Colorado River. The Boxed M Ranch headquarters was located just north of Bowdie Canyon (Cottonwood Wash in the story) on Bowdie Point, northeast of Hattan's Point. The Pinder Ranch was headquartered on modern Lean-To Point on the edge of Dark Canyon Primitive Area. Two-Bar Canyon is a branch off the north side of Bowdie Canyon, both of which drain Dark Canyon Plateau which rises to the summit of the Sweet Alice Hills. Located almost due west of Monticello, Utah, access to the area is difficult, requiring use of a series of backcountry trails over the Abajo (Blue) Mountains or off State Route 211 near Newspaper Rock, or by boat and foot/horseback northeast from Hite Marina on the upper end of Lake Powell. The terrain can be as deadly today as it was in the 1880s.
This area is the setting of a number of other L'Amour novels, including Dark Canyon and Kilkenny .
Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area is a national park unit established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966, following the construction of the Yellowtail Dam by the Bureau of Reclamation. It straddles the border between Wyoming and Montana. The dam, named after the famous Crow leader Robert Yellowtail, harnesses the waters of the Bighorn River by turning that variable watercourse into Bighorn Lake. The lake extends 71 miles (114 km) through Wyoming and Montana, 55 miles (89 km) of which lie within the national recreation area. About one third of the park unit is located on the Crow Indian Reservation. Nearly one-quarter of the Pryor Mountains Wild Horse Range lies within the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.
Natural Bridges National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of the Four Corners boundary of southeast Utah, in the western United States, at the junction of White Canyon and Armstrong Canyon, part of the Colorado River drainage. It features the thirteenth largest natural bridge in the world, carved from the white Permian sandstone of the Cedar Mesa Formation that gives White Canyon its name.
Louis Dearborn L'Amour was an American novelist and short-story writer. His books consisted primarily of Western novels ; however, he also wrote historical fiction, science fiction, non-fiction (Frontier), as well as poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into films. L'Amour's books remain popular and most have gone through multiple printings. At the time of his death almost all of his 105 existing works were still in print, and he was "one of the world's most popular writers".
Brown's Park or Browns Park, originally called Brown's Hole, is an isolated mountain valley along the Green River in Moffat County, Colorado and Daggett County, Utah in the United States. The valley begins in far eastern Utah, approximately 25 miles (40 km) downstream from Flaming Gorge Dam, and follows the river downstream into Colorado, ending at the Gates of Lodore in Dinosaur National Monument. Known as a haven for outlaws such as Butch Cassidy and Tom Horn during the late 19th century and the early 20th century, it is now the location of the Browns Park National Wildlife Refuge. It was also the birthplace of Ann Bassett. She and her sister Josie Bassett, were considered female outlaws and girlfriends to several of Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang. It is the location of John Jarvie Historic Ranch, where, in 1880, Scotsman John Jarvie built a ranch along the Green River.
The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is a United States National Recreation Area containing many individual parks and open space preserves, located primarily in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. The SMMNRA is located within the greater Los Angeles region, with two thirds of the parklands in northwest Los Angeles County, and the remaining third, including a Simi Hills extension, in southeastern Ventura County.
State Route 95 or Bicentennial Highway is a state highway located in the southeast of the U.S. state of Utah. The highway is an access road for tourism in the Lake Powell and Cedar Mesa areas, notably bisecting Bears Ears National Monument and providing the only access to Natural Bridges National Monument. The highway does not serve any cities, except for the small town of Hanksville at its western terminus. Although the highway has existed since the 1930s as a primitive dirt road, it received its name at its dedication as a paved state highway coincident with the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976. The highway forms part of the Trail of the Ancients National Scenic Byway.
The Camelsfoot Range is a sub-range of the Chilcotin Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in British Columbia. The Fraser River forms its eastern boundary. The range is approximately 90 km at its maximum length and less than 30 km wide at its widest.
The Arizona Strip is the part of Arizona lying north of the Colorado River. The difficulty of crossing the Grand Canyon causes this region to have more physical and cultural connections with southern Utah and Nevada than with the rest of Arizona. The largest settlements in the Strip are Colorado City and Fredonia.
Brighton Ski Resort is a ski area located in Big Cottonwood Canyon in Brighton, Utah, United States, about 30 miles (48 km) from downtown Salt Lake City. It is owned and operated by Boyne Resorts.
The Little Sahara Recreation Area is a large area of sand dunes, hills and sagebrush flats located in the northeast corner of the Sevier Desert in Juab County in the west central part of Utah, United States.
Dark Canyon Wilderness is a designated Wilderness Area in the heart of southeast Utah's canyon country, part of the Bears Ears National Monument. The wilderness is named for its high steep walls that narrow in the lower section so that they block the light in the morning and late afternoon. The roughly horseshoe-shaped wilderness is made up of the upper part of 40-mile-long (64 km) Dark Canyon and two major tributaries, Woodenshoe Canyon and Peavine Canyon in the Manti-La Sal National Forest. These canyons all descend from pine-covered Elk Ridge northeast of Natural Bridges National Monument. Dark Canyon continues west within a U.S. Bureau of Land Management primitive area that is recommended for wilderness designation. The last four miles (6.4 km) of the main canyon drop steeply through Glen Canyon National Recreation Area into Lake Powell.
Ralph Compton was an American writer of western fiction.
The Kokopelli's Trail is a 142-mile (229 km) multi-use trail in the Western U.S. states of Colorado and Utah. The trail was named in honor of its mythic muse, Kokopelli. The trail was created by the Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association (COPMOBA) in cooperation with the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the United States Forest Service (NFS) in 1989.
Carnegie State Vehicular Recreation Area is a state park unit of California, U.S., providing off-roading opportunities in the Diablo Range. Located in southern Alameda and San Joaquin counties, it is one of eight state vehicular recreation areas (SVRAs) administered by the California Department of Parks and Recreation. With a diversity of terrain ranging from rolling hills to steep canyons, Carnegie has become a popular destination for off-road enthusiasts of all skill levels.
The Fire Pony is a children's novel written by Rodman Philbrick, first published in the United States in 1996 by Blue Sky Press. It is titled Fire Pony in the UK, where it was first published in 2005 by Usborne Publishing.
The Backbone Trail is a long distance trail extending 67.79 miles (109.10 km) across the length of the Santa Monica Mountains in the U.S. state of California. Its western terminus is Point Mugu State Park and its eastern terminus is Will Rogers State Historic Park in Pacific Palisades. The trail is open to hikers throughout its length; dogs, mountain bicyclists and horseback riders are allowed on portions of the trail as posted.
Hole in the Rock is a narrow and steep crevice in the western rim of Glen Canyon, in southern Utah in the western United States. Together with another canyon on the eastern side of the Colorado River, it provided a route through what would otherwise be a large area of impassable terrain.
Chick Bowdrie is a character depicted in numerous cowboy short stories authored by western writer Louis L'Amour.
Outdoor recreation or outdoor activity refers to recreation engaged in out of doors, most commonly in natural settings. The activities themselves — such as fishing, hunting, backpacking, and horseback riding — characteristically determine where they are practiced.
