Born and raised in western Montana, David G. Rasmussen (the author of Castizo and The Man Who Moiled for Gold, winner of the Book Readers Association of America’s Best Western Novel of 2002, brings a strong sense of place to his rousing historical fiction, much of is set on the sprawling prairies and amid the towering peaks of his home state. His career as a geological and mining engineer took Rasmussen to many a locale, before finally settling, with his artist wife, Carol, in western Colorado. Rasmussen’s fascination with the history of the West, his respect for the traditions and teachings of the Free First Native Americans, and his love of the landscape and wildlife of the region shine through in all his work.

In the video below, Rasmussen sheds some light on life on the Missouri River sternwheelers that figure prominently in Volume One of his Wyakin Trilogy, Legend of the Wyakin (note that when this brief interview took place, in the steering house of the SS Moyie on the shores of British Columbia’s Kootenay Lake, the book’s working title was Legend of the Spirit Bear).