For First Lieutenant John Dunbar, the lure of the West runs deep. Offered a choice of assignments as a reward for heroism, he opts for a remote outpost on the frontier. Dunbar wants to see that world in its pristine form before it disappears forever under the wagon wheels and hoof prints of advancing civilization. What he finds transforms him. The Great Plains is a new world for the lieutenant, a place that brims with beauty, fascination, and, perhaps most importantly, wildness. This sense of things untamed calls out to Dunbar’s soul.

For the settlers who kill wantonly, the wildness they seek comes from their own untamed, self-indulgent, and violent urges that are suddenly given their head in a land free of the restrictions of civilization. These settlers become wild and destructive. Unlike them, Dunbar is respectful of the prairie and its residents. The wildness in his character isn’t an undisciplined wantonness but a wellspring of spontaneity, compassion, and intense love for nature, feelings he finally can express freely on the frontier. He doesn’t kill things needlessly nor disrespect them by misusing or squandering their blessings.

In response, the prairie welcomes him. Its first emissary is

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