Dreams to Dust
A Tale of the Oklahoma Land Rush
Published by: University of Oklahoma Press
Imprint: University of Oklahoma Press
296 Pages | 6 x 9
$21.95
$19.95
On a fateful day in 1889, the Oklahoma land rush begins, and for thousands of settlers the future is up for grabs. One of those people is Creed McReynolds, fresh from the East with a lawyer’s education and a head full of aspirations. The mixed-blood son of a Kiowa mother and a U.S. Cavalry doctor, Creed lands in Guthrie station, the designated Territorial Capital, where he must prove that he is more than the half-blood kid once driven from his own land.
In recounting the precipitous rise and catastrophic fall of the jerrybuilt city of Guthrie, author Sheldon Russell immerses us in the lives of Creed and other memorable characters whose ambitions echo the taming of the frontier—and whose fates hold lessons as important today as they were more than a hundred years ago.
Among the people McReynolds must contend with is Abaddon Damon. A ruthless newspaper publisher, Abaddon is quick to strike any bargain that will bring him the power he craves, and like many others, Creed McReynolds is swept into his whirlwind of greed and deception. Creed becomes the wealthiest man in the Territory—but at an unbearable cost to himself, the dreams of others, and the dignity of his mother’s people.
Dreams to Dust takes readers back to the early days of Oklahoma Territory—a sometimes dangerous place filled with nefarious dealings, where violence lurks behind even casual encounters—to tell the story of frontier men and women gambling everything to find their fortune on the windswept southern plains.
Sheldon Russell is the author of several novels, including Dreams to Dust: A Tale of the Oklahoma Land Rush, which won the Oklahoma Book Award for fiction.
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Jane Little Botkin discusses her book, “The Girl Who Dared to Defy: Jane Street and the Rebel Maids of Denver”
Wednesday. May 18, 2022 | 12:00 pm
In-Person and Online Aurora History Museum 15051 East Alameda Parkway Aurora, CO 80012
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Book Signing with Connie Cronley at Best of Books
Saturday. May 21, 2022 | 2:00 pm
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Jill Hunting in Conversation with Mike Everhart at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History
Thursday. June 16, 2022 | 6:00 pm
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Meet Jill Hunting at Flint Hills Books
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Author Talk with Jill Hunting at Full Circle Books
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