"Who in the west has not heard of Wetzel, the daring borderer...the Boone of North-Western Virginia." -Wills de Hass, 1851 Lewis Wetzel came of age near the end of the Revolutionary War and was an important participant in the twenty-year war be tween the woodland Indian Nations and the settlers of western Pennsylvania, western Virginia, and Kentucky. The novel, although classified as historical fiction, traces Wetzel's life over a period of more than twenty years, featuring events and the rich history that occurred in the upper Ohio River Valley, Kentucky, Ohio, and down the Mississippito New Orleans. According to de Hass, a historian in the mid-nineteenth century, "Wetzel's efforts were without parallel in border warfare."