Legacy of the Bitterroots

A Crystal Village Tale

A sweeping multigenerational American epic that weaves together historical mystery, mythic storytelling, and urgent contemporary questions about who gets to tell our stories.

★ DEBUT NOVEL ★

In 1867, Irish Civil War veteran Eoinn Seeley leads six fellow immigrants through the American West searching for a place to establish a home for their families. Along the way they rescue an orphan girl, Sam King, and together establish Crystal Village in Idaho's Bitterroot Mountains—a utopian mining community that becomes one of the most progressive settlements in the American West. With cutting-edge technology, radical social vision, and love stories that defy convention, the village prospers for decades through infamous gold rushes, forging complex relationships with neighboring Indigenous communities. Then the Great Fire of 1910 erases it from history.

But what really happened to Crystal Village? And why do some families still carry its secrets?

Over a century later, Jack Seeley returns to Idaho to visit his aging grandmother and discovers fragments of a mystery that will change everything he thought he knew about his family's past. Working alongside childhood friend, Susanne O'Connor, Jack begins to uncover the truth about Crystal Village—a truth that involves not just hidden history, but the mythic forces that have shaped the American West since time immemorial.

Meticulously researched and featuring real historical figures from the mining boom era, Legacy of the Bitterroots spans from the Civil War to the digital age, exploring themes of cultural collaboration, hidden family histories, and the transformative power of authentic storytelling. From the chosen family bonds of Irish immigrants to the complex romance between cultures and generations, this is a story about what we inherit, what we choose to preserve, and what we're willing to risk to honor both the past and the future.

Eric Picard's stunning debut novel—for readers of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Golem and the Jinni, and Homegoing—a genre-defying novel that asks what happens when history refuses to stay buried, and whether authentic wonder can be preserved while honoring both the past and the future.

The Weaving of An Awesome Story

Eric Picard has done it. He wrote a book that weaved a lost mining ghost town, Irish magic, the Fey, and the Native American teachings of Raven and Coyote into a comprehensive story. It made sense, it speaks to the reader, it calls to us to remember where we came from and the lessons of our ancestors. Being Irish and Native married to a Potawatomi, this book meant the world to me. Thank you, Eric. Thank you for your respect to our culture and for breathing new life into our stories.