Fifty Years On The Trail: The True Story of John Y. Nelson, Frontiersman, Scout, and Guide

Frontiersman, military scout, interpreter, guide, police chief, and saloon owner; John Young Nelson led a varied life in far west.

He had fled home in Virginia as a young teenager to escape an overbearing father and to build a new life himself.

After working a number of small jobs he met a band of Sioux who took him in and showed him their way of life.

His book Fifty Years on the Trail tells tales of his life among Sioux, spent hunting, trapping, on raids and in skirmishes.

The book later recounts life as guide, during the period that he led the Mormons into Salt Lake Valley in 1847, as well as a scout during the Indian Wars that erupted in the mid-nineteenth century.

One of the most experienced of American trappers. … The Casanova of the Trail, a more splendid natural ruffian, one more candid, cautious, daring, and diverting, it is impossible to desire. — Saturday Review

A thorough plainsman, his standing as a train guide was most enviable, being sought for by all. — Buffalo Bill's Wild West

His adventures are among the strangest and the most amusing in the world. — The Bookmart

John Young Nelson’s memoir records a remarkable life through a tumultuous period. Fifty Years on the Trail was first published in 1889 and he passed away in 1903.