A Stout Cord and a Good Drop portrays the lawless era of Montana's gold rush through the eyes of five young men swept up in the drama and controversy of those lawless days in the early 1860s. While the Civil War raged in the East, a war of a different kind--for control over the population of and government over the new Montana Territory--was played out in the dirt streets of mining towns and empty byways and tree-filled gulches between them. The formation of the Montana Vigilance Committee and their attempts to control the diverse population of the booming region is the backbone of this dramatic tale of intrigue in the Old West.