Darish felt vague misgivings as the strangers peered in the windows of the closed-up hotel across the street. He caught himself: He'd been in McCarthy only a short time, and already he'd picked up the local mistrust of visitors hunting souvenirs from the past.
-- Narrator/Author (Chapter 1 paragraph Page 4, Paragraph 2)

Importance: This quote reveals that Neil Darish had an instinct upon first meeting the Pilgrim family. In the end, his misgivings proved right.

Doug Miller returned to hammering. The partner in charge of authenticity had seen enough.
-- Author/Narrator (Chapter 1 paragraph Page 14, Paragraph 4)

Importance: This passage foreshadows the fact that the Pilgrims would prove to be anything but the authentic traditional family they claimed to be.

The three Pilgrim properties were, moreover, non-contiguous. In the old days, miners had never worried how they got form one place to another. But now arrangements would be necessary. Even in Alaska, a person could get in real trouble driving cross-country through a national park.
-- Narrator/Author (Chapter 3 paragraph Page 34, Paragraph 2)

Importance: This quote begins...