Nighthawk Rising: A Biography of Accused Cattle Rustler Queen Ann Bassett of Brown’s Park

Nighthawk Rising: A Biography of Accused Cattle Rustler Queen Ann Bassett of Brown’s Park

By Diana Allen Kouris

Author Diana Allen Kouris, a native of Brown’s Park, utilized her personal and family connections, along with years of research, to meticulously and extensively record the fascinating life events of Ann Bassett. Kouris includes never-before-published photographs.

Ann Bassett was known as the “Queen of the Cattle Rustlers,” although she was never convicted. Queen Ann, as she was called, lived a life full of adventure and controversy in the Brown’s Park region of Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. She broke bread with Butch Cassidy, had her life turned upside down by notorious range detective Tom Horn, and stood tall against cattle baron Ora Haley.

Anyone with an interest in Western History will want this comprehensive book!

• • 9781937147167 • trade paper • 416 pp • $21.95 ORDER NOW

Nighthawk Rising: A Biography of Accused Cattle Rustler Queen Ann Bassett of Brown’s Park

By Diana Allen Kouris

"In Nighthawk Rising, Diana Allen Kouris has painted a new masterpiece of what life was like in the remote, rugged, and yet beautiful Brown’s Park. Through her years of tireless research, she has in a another sense become a master restorationist—bringing back color and depth to a canvas once obscured by generations of smoke and grime of half-truths and misinterpretations regarding Ann Bassett and her family and their neighbors. Diana’s own Brown’s Park roots, combined with her love of its history and a talent for the written word has gifted her with the unique ability to accomplish such a monumental task."
•• Dan Davidson, Director The Museum of Northwest Colorado—Craig

Diana Allen Kouris

Diana Allen Kouris is an award-winning author of nonfiction articles and books. She grew up a Brown’s Park cowgirl in the famed region where Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah converge. Decades of research and writing have rendered Kouris an authority on the spellbinding history of the area. She is a featured historian in the documentary Tom Horn: Grim Reaper of the Rockies.

Her previous books are The Romantic and Notorious History of Brown’s Park and Riding the Edge of an Era: Growing Up Cowboy on the Outlaw Trail. Kouris has also been published in True West Magazine, Outlaw Trail Journal, and Leaning into the Wind: Women Write from the Heart of the West.

Nighthawk Rising serves as the apex of her work as a historian.