The Road From NowhereThe Road From Nowhere

In 1893, "there's one road in Gatchett's Gluch,--population forty-five--a silver mining town in the high Colorado desert. That means there's only one way in and one way out. Fourteen-year-old Ollie feels trapped and restless, desperate to find his own lode of silver so he can gain riches and get his family out of the town. As the man of the house, he feels that's his job, just as his younger brother Gus's job is to ask question after question. Though Ollie is unwilling to admit it, he doesn't have all the answers. He can't even read, unlike Alys, the only girl and only friend he has outside of Gus. Meanwhile, a man who calls himself a geologist has arrived in town. Not only can he read books, he can read rocks, the first person that Ollie has ever seen who looks at rocks with fascination, not desperation. Most important, he knows how to stake a silver claim. So when Ollie, Gus, and Alys stumble upon a cave rich with silver and form a friendship with that geologist, the future suddenly looks good. The problem: Elijah Gatchett runs the Gulch and claims all its silver"--