Tim Baxter's life on the ranch in Grantsville, Utah, was not always typical, but it would be considered routine compared to his life after he rode his horse across the dividing ridge of Stansbury Island in Great Salt Lake. When he crossed the ridge, he was transported back in time to the mid-1850s. He met Yaibi and Piubi, two Shoshoni Indian boys in their late teens, and together they rode their horses across the mountains and deserts of Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming, having almost daily adventures.

Tim was bitten by a rattlesnake, mauled by a grizzly bear, faced down savage ravenous wolves, hit on the head with an Indian's war club, and threatened to be tied to a tree and burned by hostile Indians.

He learned through his dangerous adventures-and sometimes very painful experiences-that going back to a different time period did not exclude him from the challenges of life. Perhaps of more concern than his obvious mortality, he did not know if he could ever go back to the time period he left and see his family and friends again, or if he was destined to stay in the past for the rest of his life.

Living on the frontier, the depths of his character were plumbed, and it was there that he fully demonstrated the grit that characterized his very nature.