Hard gold / Avi

Early Wittcomb's family needs a miracle. Their farm has hit by hard times, and if the Wittcombs don't pay the mortage, the local bank will grab the farm. Uncle Jesse has a solution: to head west and scoop up the plentiful gold reportedly discoverd in Pike's Peak region of the Rocky Mountains, Soon Jesse can't think of anything but gold, and Eary is wild to head west with him. But travel cost money-more than the boys have Jesse disappears. Early knows what he must do. He seizes the opportunity to work on a wagon train headed west.

Determined to find his nineteen-year-old uncle and best friend, Jesse, who left for Colorado to find enough gold to pay the mortgage and save the family's Iowa farm, twelve-year-old Early Whittcomb joins up with a barber, his wife, and his daughter on a wagon train heading for the gold fields near Pike's Peak in 1858.