Wyoming Arts Council

Morton wins award for best indie novel


Independent Publisher has awarded its gold medal in the Best Regional Fiction West-Mountain category to Where the Rivers Run North, by Sam Morton. The book was published by the Sheridan County Historical Society Press, Sheridan, Wyo.

Here’s a description of the book from the Sheridan County Historical Society web site:

For the millions of our earth’s people who love horses, western history, or just a great read, Sam Morton’s epic novel Where Rivers Run North is just the ticket! It is the story of horses, the colorful and widely diverse people who raised, used, and sold them, and the land that shaped them all.

Author Sam Morton has taken on a theme which he knows and loves. He is no outsider to the people he depicts. He could fit, easily, as a character in his own book. The book skillfully weaves together history of the horse with that of the people, beginning in the mid 1800s with the young Indian boy Curly, who would grow up to be the legendary Lakota Warrior, Crazy Horse. Morton takes us from the Indian warriors and the U.S. Cavalry, to the Remount, providing tens of thousands of horses for overseas wars. His characters are warriors, soldiers, cowboys, and ranchers. They also include horse breeders, trainers and traders; polo players, and a myriad of others, as diverse in their origins as an Indian warrior may be from a learned and sophisticated Easterner and even to English nobility, sharing a common bond growing from their love of the animal and the land.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sam Morton, a native of Southern Pines, North Carolina, has worked as a horse trainer in northern Wyoming and southern Florida for over thirty years. He received a B.A. in history from Guilford College in 1981 and has written for several publications, including American Cowboy, Polo Players Edition, Sidelines, and Pine Straw Magazine. He resides in Big Horn, Wyoming, during the summer and Wellington, Florida, during the winter.


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