Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 571

This issue of Beadle & Adams' pulp magazine (October 2, 1889) features "The Hidden Bastion of Wind Canyon," a romance of Northwest Wyoming by William G. Patten, author of "Hustler Harry, the Cowboy Sport."

The story opens with an emigrant wagon train of thirty people bound for Black Hills gold fields, camped on a tributary of the Cheyenne River in Eastern Wyoming. Among the company are two veteran '49ers—"Old Hasty," a quick-draw gunslinger, and "'Bijah Bigfist," a gentle giant of remarkable strength despite poor marksmanship. Their comic banter provides entertainment for the train. Also present is Hattie Holmes, an eighteen-year-old beauty traveling with her silent, melancholic father Martin, who commands respect but reveals little of himself. Multiple men admire Hattie: the lovestruck 'Bijah, Nebraska Nat the guide (who openly courts her with gallant speeches about wealth and devotion), and Parson Phineas Perkins, a Vermont minister apparently jealous of the guide's attentions.

Nebraska Nat presses his romantic suit, declaring his love and offering wealth, but Hattie firmly refuses him, stating she does not love him. The narrative contains period frontier dialogue and explores tensions between the emigrants' hopes for gold and the dangers of Indian country.