"A Western Moby Dick that portrays a man's desperate search for the King of the Horses." The Sacramento Bee, Feb. 16, 1975
Why does the wild horse play such a legendary role in the in Old West, often serving as a symbol of unbridled American freedom?
Famous author of western books Zane Grey provides some insights in his 1914 book portraying events surrounding wild horses in early Utah under the title "Wild Horse Mesa."
The book's events take place in what is now Big Wild Horse Mesa Wilderness in Utah which surrounds the Goblin Valley State Park on three sides.
In introducing the setting of the book, Zane Grey writes:
"The mystery and insurmountable nature of Wild Horse Mesa had usurped many a thoughtful hour of Chane Weymer's lonely desert life in Utah. Every wandering rider had a strange story to tell about this vast tableland. But Chane had never before seen it from so lofty and commanding a height as this to which Toddy Nokin, the Piute, had led him; nor had there ever before been so impelling a fascination as that engendered by the Indian."
Zane Grey's book was later turned into the movie "Wild Horse Mesa," a 1925 American silent Western film directed by George B. Seitz and starring Jack Holt, Noah Beery Sr., Billie Dove, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. that was based on the novel Wild Horse Mesa by Zane Grey. The film is about a Utah rancher who, desperate for money, decides to trap and sell wild horses.
