The Colorado was the wildest, toughest river in America. Just staying alive on the rapids took a lot of nerve and a lot of luck. And then there were the men who lined it. Teddy Roosevelt called them wolves—old-time gunfighters and desperados who hid out in the surrounding wilderness. They were desperate sonsofbitches who hated the modern world that had exiled them, and they were constantly ready to strike out and kill any passing stranger for his boat, or his gun.
Fargo's job was to go down the Colorado with Roosevelt's government explorers. And if anyone could keep them afloat and keep them alive, it was him.