“Wild King Savagery” by Harold F. Cruickshank
WE’RE celebrating the holidays with Harold F. Cruickshank—creator of those great Aces of the Western Front’s Hell Skies—Red Eagle, Sky Wolf, and Sky Devil. But this holiday season it’s going to be a down home Christmas featuring Cruickshank’s Pioneer Folk stories from the pages of Range Riders Western (1945-1952) on Mondays and Fridays; and Cruickshank’s own recollections of homesteading life from The Edmonton Journal’s The Third Column on Wednesdays.
Cruickshank wrote 35 stories chronicling 
the trials and tribulations of Dal and Mary Baldwin as they carved out their piece of the Wilderness in Sun Bear Valley, Wyoming and establish a growing community. King, the great stallion Dal had fist glimpsed when he arrived in Sun Bear Valley, has returned and Dal is determined to try and breed one of his mares with the great one, but an unsavory outsider has arrived in the valley to cause trouble and sets his sights on Nan.
From the May 1947 number of Range Riders Western, it’s Harold F. Cruickshank’s Pioneer Folks in “Wild King Savagery!”
Dal Baldwin, first settler in Sun Bear Valley, meets the challenge of a renegade seeking to despoil his homestead!
- Download “Wild King Savagery” (May 1947, Range Riders Western)
the trials and tribulations of Dal and Mary Baldwin as they carved out their piece of the Wilderness in Sun Bear Valley, Wyoming and establish a growing community. Doc gets injured as the Sun Bear Valley men work to build a cozy cabin for Phil and school-marm Nan to move into when they finally tie the knot, but Bart Manning, one of the Boxed D wranglers, has eyes for Nan and sets about to cause deadly mischief.
the trials and tribulations of Dal and Mary Baldwin as they carved out their piece of the Wilderness in Sun Bear Valley, Wyoming and establish a growing community. Rankin and the Box D crew try to jump the Sun Bear Valley settler’s claim on the neighboring valley by moving their cattle in to graze. The Sun Bear Valley crew try to solve their problem without any violence by bringing their sheep into the valley.
the trials and tribulations of Dal and Mary Baldwin as they carved out their piece of the Wilderness in Sun Bear Valley, Wyoming and establish a growing community. The Morrison’s young friend Phil Cody arrives with a view to squatting at the new valley Dal had discovered westward through the pass while Quirt Malotte’s brother arrive with two fellow horse thieving owlhoots to get even with Dal once and for all.
the trials and tribulations of Dal and Mary Baldwin as they carved out their piece of the Wilderness in Sun Bear Valley, Wyoming and establish a growing community. Looking to strengthen his horse breeding stock, Dal goes in search of King, the great wild stallion he had seen when he and Mary had first arrived in the valley, who has been absent from Sun Bear Valley and in the process discovers another valley beyond with close to two hundred and fifty acres of tillable land, and pasture range beyond.
the trials and tribulations of Dal and Mary Baldwin as they carved out their piece of the Wilderness in Sun Bear Valley, Wyoming and establish a growing community. The Sun Bear Valley settlers start to worry about their rights as squatters and plan to get government surveyors in to draw up their claims as a salty outfit of owlhoots lead by a nasty piece of work known as Runkin herding about a hundred head of the mangiest looking cattle heads toward their valley.
the trials and tribulations of Dal and Mary Baldwin as they carved out their piece of the Wilderness in Sun Bear Valley, Wyoming and establish a growing community. Doc runs afoul of Malotte the half-breed who has returned to rustle Dal’s horses and another wagon arrives in the valley with more settlers—The Morrisons—Jud and Olga, their eleven year old fraternal twins Martin and Maureen and eldest son Jack who is married to Rhona and has three young kids of his own—little baby Jud, five months; Nell, four, and Ollie, five. With little Jimmy Baldwin a husky four year old now and his recently born younger brother Tenby, looks like Sun Bear Valley will be needing the services of the Morrison’s niece who is a school-marm.
the trials and tribulations of Dal and Mary Baldwin as they carved out their piece of the Wilderness in Sun Bear Valley, Wyoming and establish a growing community. The Sun Bear settlers are menaced by Mishe, the she-grizzly, and Acheeta, the cougar and Dal knew that to grizzly and cougar alike, there was no more succulent food in all the wilds than young horseflesh. In a night, either species of varmint could wipe out the whole of Dal’s horse stock and his cow and her calf as well.
the trials and tribulations of Dal and Mary Baldwin as they carved out their piece of the Wilderness in Sun Bear Valley, Wyoming and establish a growing community. Another family arrives in the valley in the form of Tom and Ella Bruce and their infant daughter. Unfortunately for Dal, they took the advice of that rascally half-breed Quirt Malotte on their way there and their dog and flock of sheep they’ve brought with them arrive first and trample through Dal’s crop and Mary’s garden. The Bruces more than make up for it when lightning touches off a fire in the valley.
the trials and tribulations of Dal and Mary Baldwin as they carved out their piece of the Wilderness in Sun Bear Valley, Wyoming and establish a growing community. The Baldwins are settled in to their cabin in Sun Bear Valley, but an old nemesis returns and a new couple arrive in the valley just as Mary is about to give birth.
Canada’s very own 