Young and brilliant, Earnest N. S. Ringgenberg started university in his home country of Switzerland. Soon, though, he found an opportunity to come to America and he jumped at it. He'd always been enamored with the history and frontier of America.

He attended Our Lady of Angels Seminary in Buffalo NY, studying Earth and Life Sciences, and excelling in chemistry and pharmacy. Over time his interests also turned to archeology. He attained a professorship in record time.

At the same time, he indulged two more of his passions: language and women. Eugene learned many varied languages in his spare time, including several native american tongues. But the second passion caused him some trouble...

He met a young woman that he liked, but something told him that he shouldn't pull his usual tricks on her. This turned to be a good call since she turned out to be one of the university president's daughters! He continued to see here socially and in doing so, got to know the president well; but before long, he sensed something was amiss. A bit of discrete investigating quickly found that the university president was embezzling from the university. When he confronted the man, he was furious, but could not deny the evidence. Earnest made an agreement with him to keep it to himself and one other if the president stopped immediately (he was generous because he had grown fond of the daughter and didn't wish to see her hurt). Earnest set up an trusted friend to secretly ensure the president kept to his word and then announced his decision to go on a sabbatical (which seemed prudent, given the enemy he had just made).

In his typical fashion, he saw this as an opportunity to finally get some serious field work in the burgeoning West. He travelled to St Louis and hired an amiable old trail rider to prepare him for the frontier. Then he set out, confident that his many skills would carry him through the adventures ahead!