Femmes Fatales, Gamblers, Yankees And Rebels in the Gold Fields [1859-1869]

"This was a time of lawlessness, mayhem, adventure, entrepreneurship, scandal and war -- and Wiles & Brown have captured it all! The famous, the infamous, the obscure fight for wealth, love and freedom in California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Montana. War bloodies Kansas, Nebraska and eastern battlefields. Clear your work before you start this book, because you will not put it down." Ray Glazner, Educator, Museum & Movie Consultant. Wausau, Wisconsin

Delores M. Brown [married name Wiles] made her earthly debut in Chanute, Kansas. At age one, she moved to Greeley, Colorado, where she was raised and graduated high school with honors. She did TV commercials and print modeling. She appears on the cover of Book 1 of this Series, The Blackjack Queen, Cutthroats and Good Time Girls of the Gold Rush [1849-1859], spearing the poker game's "extra" Ace of Spades with her Bowie Knife. Delores served as a probate and litigation paralegal for over a decade, and has taken 40 college courses on historical and legal research techniques. Both she and her husband Gary were certified in 1986 to operate a public TV Station in Del Mar, California. Together, Delores and Gary have over 120 publishing credits for their wild animal and horse photography in magazine articles, magazine covers, posters sold worldwide and the covers of many books, including their own. While living in Laguna Niguel, from her own computer, Delores could access 1.7 million books in the Library of the University of California at Irvine, where she and Gary have lectured. Using UCI's Melvyl® password, she could reach 16 million more books on UC's other campuses. Using the vast facilities of the Internet, her research potential has become limitless. Both she and Gary haunted the Western Regional office of the National Archives of the United States, unearthing personal letters and original historical documents for their books. Delores is co-author and did most of the research for their five historical books. She and Gary perform in their eight Audiostageplays read from their books with sound effects and period music. She lectures on these books for Colleges, Universities, Libraries, Museums, Military and Service Organizations. Gary is quick to point out that he is the one with the Doctorate, but Delores is the one with the brains. Gary H. Wiles first saw the light of day in Colorado Springs, Colorado in the Rockies during the Great Depression. As a boy, he worked his grandpa's cattle ranch near Monument, Colorado and spent several summers dynamiting chunks out of mountains for his father's dam and road construction outfit. While working at a trucking company, he graduated from Chula Vista High School in California, then attended UCLA in 1950 on an NROTC Scholarship, which Gary aborted when he volunteered for the draft to serve in Korea. Back home, Gary graveyarded in an urban slum as a cop, while attending San Diego State University by day. He's most proud of delivering five babies and being Godfather to three of them. After getting his BA in English, Gary became a daytime Deputy Marshal. He attended the University of San Diego's night Law School; claiming he was the Green Hornet by day and a Fly by Night until graduating second in his class as student body president with a Juris Doctorate. Gary litigated antitrust and commercial cases throughout the United States for the next 30 years with a 93.57% trial success rate until retiring as the senior partner of the largest independent law firm in La Jolla, California. He took numerous university photography courses with classmate Delores. Gary and Delores wrote many published articles on horses and history. In 1992 they traveled about 10,000 miles on the Oregon Trail and its tributaries, culminating with an article on its sesquicentennial. Then they lost control, writing three high action history books about the exciting period from 1800 to 1836 on the westward expansion of the greatest country in the world, driven by the engine of the fur trade. Now they're crafting a rousing historical trilogy on America's later western expansion between 1849 and 1879 fired by gold and silver rushes, a civil war and the transcontinental railroad. With two books in this series completed, they have one to go.