In 1871, America was beginning to pull itself together in the aftermath of the Civil War and life, at least back East, was beginning to feel civilized. The District of Columbia was consolidated as a municipal corporation, the first Surgeon General was appointed, President Grant signed the Civil Rights Act, the first Major League Baseball game was played, and the era of corruption of Boss Tweed's Tammany Hall was put to an end.

Out West, the Heyden Geological Survey was surveying and photographing the region later known as Yellowstone National Park. The continuing expansion of the railroads brought more and more settlers west of the Mississippi. But hostilities with the Indians were common as they fought to protect their lands, and the settlers and fortune hunters seemed to always arrive in the western territories before the law.

And for three days in October, nearly four square miles of the densely populated city of Chicago was destroyed by fire.

Bret and Bart Maverick continued their search for the Tall Man across the West.[1] Bart, at the invitation of Brother Bret, would travel to San Francisco for the first time.[2] And somewhere along the way, Bart would wind up owing Bret a thousand dollars that would not get paid back for the rest of the decade (or was it Bret that owed Bart?).[3]