This book was assigned reading for one of my classes for Wyoming history. I did enjoy the book. I think it’s a good example of life in Wyoming for a lot of oilfield workers. The authors does a good job showing the importance of family and the dangers of working on a rig. ( )

Good story about the life of a boy growing up in modern American Mid West, simple wants and needs but a sad ending. True story. ( )

A true story of growing up in a small town atmosphere in Wyoming. Throw in cowboys, Mormonism, and the oil patch and the result is a buckin’ good yarn. Remember, though, that the story is both true and sad to understand it in the final analysis. My reading of it helped to recall the years I spent working in the oil patch in, among other places, Wyoming. ( )

Colton is the young son of an oil rig worker. Never much good at school and always looking to follow in his father's footsteps, it was practically inevitable that Colton himself would one day end up working on the rigs. Fuller paints a picture of a mostly happy go lucky, good hearted kid, growing up on the high plains of Wyoming, breaking horses, hunting, camping, going out on the rodeo circuit but ultimately heading to work for big oil.

In this lightly re-imagined telling of Colton's life, Fuller manages to bring out that spirit Wyoming seems to wear on its face, indescribable open spaces and mountain vistas that only thinly disguise a harder edge. The people she introduces readers to are hard living, hard working, decent types carving a life out in a place that's not quite hospitable. At the same time, Fuller is writing a scathing indictment of big oil, an industry that dominates Wyoming's economy, preying on a lack of other opportunity and an often undereducated workforce trying to eke out a living.

Fuller expertly draws out the lives of Colton and his family and friends, showing us a big hearted, loyal boy who grew into a young family man trying to earn a living to support his wife and kids. Fuller, just as skillfully, lets readers in on the issues with the oil industry in Wyoming - the hours, the undertraining, the under-penalized safety violations, and countless underhanded ways of sticking it to a labor pool that doesn't have much other opportunity.

The Legend of Colton H. Bryant is heavy with foreshadowing. There isn't a moment in the book, even while Fuller amuses us with Colton's childhood antics, that doesn't carry the weight of looming tragedy. This book is a true heartbreaker of a story and a powerful call to action against the sort of corporate greed that ruins both landscapes and lives. Highly recommended. ( )

Gee, what a lovely book this is. The story of one man's life, one that wouldn't rate as much more than a footnote in any other context, and really beautifully told. Very political in the most un-political format imaginable, the absolutely clear and simple point being: Everyone counts. ( )