Healy's West: The Life and Times of John J. Healy Paperback – August 1, 2014

John J. Healy was an influential figure in early Montana history. He was seen as a scoundrel by some, a legend by others. He was active in the whiskey trade at the notorious Fort Whoop-Up and elsewhere, served a term as sheriff of Choteau County, Montana, and later made it big in Alaska."Healy’s West. The Life and Times of John J. Healy" is a very thorough and well-written chronicle of this man and the times he lived in. Much on early gold prospecting in Oregon and Idaho, Ft. Benton, Fort Whoop-Up and the Klondike gold rush in Alaska. I heartily recommends this book.

This was very interesting and well written!!

19th century newspaper reporter Tappan Adney realized John J Healy had been--and still was--a fascinating character. More than that, the old man represented, in large measure, what it once meant to be a "frontiersman" as far back as the late 1850s. Adney wrote the man's biography--but never published it. Over a century later, one has finally been published."Healy's West," by self-confessed Canadian amateur historian, Gordon Tolton, is likely a more carefully--exhaustively!--researched than Adney's early attempt, but likely doesn't read as well, if Adney's gold-rush classic, "The Klondike Stampede" is anything to go by.Tolton's challenge is huge: Healy packed many lifetimes' worth of wilderness experiences into his own 50 years west of the Mississippi as he fought, starved, schemed and somehow survived brutal hardships of a dozen wild-west locations, swapping liquor for furs, tracking rustlers as a lawman, writing the news in his own newspaper, operating an Alaska trading post and becoming a founding partner of a gold-rush paddlewheel enterprise on the Yukon River.The book, in many places, is little more than long series of facts. What's sadly missing is satisfying story-telling. It's a great historical resource--and one that was badly needed. However, I kept hoping it might also be something it isn't: a great adventure story.

Healy's West suffers from a lack of (proper) editing and subpar storytelling. Had I edited this book it would have gone back to the author with hundreds of red marks, including (but not limited to) further explanation and clarification. Mountain Press should have taken more interest in the project instead of just publishing it "as is." If someone did edit this book I can only say that it should be the last time.

It was very interesting but jumped around a lot. Well worth reading