The Son of the Madam of Mustang Ranch

Compelling, adventurous and inspirational, The Son of the Madam of Mustang Ranch, is a memoir. Guns, violence and lust; wars between two houses of prostitution, gambling rife and aplenty, and debauchery. It was a crazed and corrupt world, and Joe Leonard was born right into it.


Beyond all, this is the story of how Joe gained the courage to leave the dark realm he had inherited behind and return to the natural and untamed world of his youth, in pursuit of his better angels. His journeys carried him to Africa, Costa Rica, the Arctic, and the Indian villages of the Sierra Madre.


He kayaked the hundred-year flood of the Salmon River in Idaho, completed the first winter ascent of Mount Regan in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho, was blown up the face of a cliff in the embrace of a windstorm, believing all the while it would most likely be his last moment on earth, and was saved from an avalanche by the hand of God.


Joe pioneered the first back-country hut-to-hut skiing system in the United States and held the first white-water rodeos in the country. He even met Jesus Christ, in the flesh, when he came to Mustang Ranch in a Volkswagen Van to save the girls from their unholy ways.


He spent much of his life speaking, photographing and supporting environmental issues.


Joe guided and was photographed by National Geographic, SKI Magazine, Town and Country, TIME magazine and PBS Idaho.