Jon Quintin Bauman

Santa Fe, in the early 1800s, was a part of Mexico, and the city's landed gentry, the haciendados, had developed an appetite for the good life. Matthew Collins, an entrepreneurial American, sees opportunity there. He bankrolls a wagon train filled with fine goods from St. Louis and, with a partner, ...

Five hundred years ago, the careers of three dramatic characters -- Queen Isabel, King Ferninand and Christopher Columbus --- intertwined to pry open Europe's medieval doors...