John Hard - The Hard Way Ranch. The Hard Way Ranch Series, #1

The mountains of the American West held many treasures. Precious metals such as gold and silver was taken from the land and the streams by the miners. Animals who's pelts were prized back East  was taken from the forest and the streams by the fur trappers. Some men even found the beauty and solitude of the mountains to be their greatest treasure. This is the story of a man who found his to be what so many others had passed over in their search.
His was the land itself. After being driven from his ranch in Texas by men with more money and power. He traveled north to the Bitter Root Mountains in search of hidden valleys he was told of as a child. There he would build his new ranch. None of these treasures came easy in the mountains. There were winters capable of freezing a man to death within a matter of hours, several tribes of hostile Indians who were always on the prowl for scalps.
There was flooding streams, grizzly bears and as everywhere a few bad men. For the man named Hard though, nothing had ever been easy. Why should this be any different.