Rock Pile

ROCK PILE is a gritty and sometimes comedic Western in the tradition of John Ford - where bullets fly and justice rides a tall horse. Sheriff John Lassiter is the big man and big heart of the story - a Union Civil War veteran who has migrated from his native war torn Missouri to found the town of Glory in Oklahoma - along with like minded folks seeking to live peaceably on the plains and away from the never ending bloody factionalism of their home state. Lassiter has a like minded counterpart in his old friend and neighbor, Clay Woodard, a Confederate veteran who - in the interest of building a new life - has followed him along with his own compatriots to establish the nearby town of Leesville. It’s not the first co-operation between the two men who’s friendship precedes the war. Lassiter once saved Woodard’s family from a Union mob out for blood. And Woodard saved Lassiter’s brother from execution after he was captured by Confederate forces in the Shenandoah. The denizens of Glory and Leesville get along well enough and are willing to mend fences on their post-war frontier. But there’s a storm on the horizon; a renegade community set in the no man’s land between the two towns. The Rock Pile (whose name aptly describes it’s geography) is a backwater haven for outcasts and outlaws complete with it’s own defunct gold mine. All that changes with the arrival of Jed Clovis. He’s big, bad and ambitious. And what’s more he’s finding gold in that old mine (or so he claims) and plots to reignite old enmities between the people of Glory and Leesville through a deadly process of divide and conquer. In fact - Clovis intends to take over both towns - and the entire territory - first by recruiting disaffected men from both communities by promising them gold and land. He is the self styled face of Reconstruction - a force bent on destroying former enemies by adopting the worst characteristics of both. And it will be up to John Lassiter and his old friend Clay Woodard to bring him to heel. If they’re not too late already.