Oregon Trail Ruts - Guernsey Wyoming

Last week we took some friends up to show them the famous Trail Ruts south of Guernsey. We have been up there dozens of times over the years, and each time I am struck by how difficult those traveling days along the Oregon Trail must have been.  

The trail itself was remarkable as it tied together the east and the west of the United States. Travel along the trail was mostly peaceful. Most tribes along the way simply allowed people to pass along what they sometimes called the Great Medicine Road. Life for the people of the plains and foothills was difficult enough without starting battles with all the passers-through.

The North Platte River runs a quarter of a mile north of the ruts pictured above. Travel would have been much easier to simply roll along a few yards from the river. The problem was - the river was big, unpredictable, and moody. The ground was likely much too soft for the heavy wagons to travel. So - they ran higher along the ridge overlooking the river. Harder but safer.

Eating on the trail was mostly the three Bs, beans, biscuits, and bacon. Throw in some rice, coffee, and dried fruit, and that was about it. Many think that the travelers dinned on wild game along the way. Some did, others tried, and most realized that would be an iffy proposition at best. 

It would have been tough, but what an adventure.

If you live in or plan to visit Wyoming, make sure you plan a trip to the ruts south of Guernsey.  

Buried by Research - Who was Who

Research can, at times, be more than I can take. I spent two days working on one obscure commander at Fort Laramie. Not only was there not much about him but there were two of him. Not really two of him, but another with the same name. Both men held the same rank, captain, achieved six-weeks apart and both were with the same group of Kansas Volunteers. After a few more hours I was able to separate them as one went east to fight in the War Between the States, and the other, the one I was looking for, came west to Fort Laramie. 

Thought I had it all figured out, except now when my man coming west should have been listed as the fort commander, he is not. Now I have another dilemma to work through. So goes the life of a researcher.

At some point I will go down to Fort Laramie and see if I can find answers in their files, actually looking forward to it. As of now, I am swallowed up in books, military records, and online research sites. Fun, but it can be exasperating.

Oh, I didn’t mention when doing the research I ran across a murder at the fort and another of a past Fort Laramie Commander in Texas, a few years after he left Laramie. Two stories I will likely use in my book.

Hard work, but highly interesting and entertaining. 

All photos are from Fort Laramie - I took them on an April visit. 

Story Idea's

Seems to me that recently I see a post or Tweet every day that starts with something like this – “Are you stuck, can’t find anything to write about?” Odd.

Are there actually writers who cannot come up with anything to write about? My problem is the opposite. I have too many ideas, too many stories, and I have to pick and choose which ones I might have time to write. 

At times, a single photo can bring on a good story

I hope no one would be serious about buying a book with ideas to write about. Might be a better idea to read more widely, travel, work and experience life, then come up with what you like to write. If you are lucky enough to make your dreams of writing turn out, and the story falls into a classification of Children’s Fiction, or Fantasy, congratulations, they are the two best-selling fiction genres.

Westerns, the old style shoot-um-ups are, for the most part, or for all parts, dead. On the other hand, historical fiction is alive and well, selling about three percent of all books. Children’s fiction is still far above all other genres selling nearly 40% of all books. Children's fiction is still riding the wave of the Harry Potter books, and the numbers may be a bit high because of J.K. Rowling. (By the way, I have read all of the Potter books and enjoyed them).

For writers at all levels, first bookers or author’s that have written several books, the key is finding an audience. Find enough readers who like what a writer is doing and the books will sell, even westerns.

I read an interesting blog recently that suggested writing in several genres instead of only one. This advice is opposite of what has normally been preached to new writers.  I was sure that I would never sell a book as I have written in so many genres. 

So far I have dabbled in Children’s, Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Short Stories, and nonfiction-historical. And have been lucky enough to sell books in all genres, not best seller sales, but enough to take a nice trip or two.

Where else would a western writer vacation? Dodge City last October

Need a Good Western Read?

Must be that time of the year to read a western. I have done zero promotions for several weeks and all of the sudden my two westerns are selling pretty well. I am happy in a scratching my head kind of way. I’m especially surprised that my book of short Christmas stories, Under Western Skies,

featuring 14 short stories in all, is still selling three months after Christmas. It sold very well the weeks before Christmas staying in the top 100 for a few days and just under that for weeks, but it is April 1. I enjoy reading short stories, and there must be others out there.

My western mystery Commitment

has experienced strong sales off and on since it came out. Book two of the series will be ready, hopefully, by June 1. These books have a terrific character in Marshall Blade Holmes, a man who has the world by the tail but must still fight off a few shortcomings.

Give one or both of these a look today, hit the link and read a sample, I think you will enjoy.  

Edit or Write - I Will Take Writing - Every Time

Nothing to do with the post but I saw this yearling and she wanted her photo taken

Trying to edit and rewrite something seven years old is difficult work. I have never tried anything like this before and am glad that I have not. Seems that my writing is better now, or, at least, I like it better, and I am changing everything as I go. I liked the story, still do, but it seems like it is taking more time than writing a new one. I had a goal of completing this by the end of the month, not sure I can make it now.

The following is an excerpt from the book, my first attempt at a young adult western mystery.

Russ Duke stood chomping the stub of a cigar on the balcony of his third story room at the downtown Casper Motor Inn, watching traffic crawl past the oldest hotel in town. The room was awful, the location was terrible, the bed was the worst he ever attempted to sleep in, but the rates were good, and that was the way Russ Duke liked it.

Duke had kept Medina’s room the past two days, and that was long enough.  He walked up the road to the Platte River, stopped and threw the key to his former partner’s second floor room from the bridge. He was pretty sure the cops had not yet found the body if they had it would have been on the news by now. He was safe. He smiled at how easy it had been. Then he started to laugh, he used to hate Medina, hated all pretty boy’s like him, now he didn’t care, Medina was dead. Duke laughed, tried to whistle a tune, but started coughing instead. He flipped the inch long stub of his cigar into the river, started laughing again as he walked toward a row of fast food restaurants.

“Ha dead, couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” Duke laughed at his joke, life was good.

Duke ordered the #3 breakfast, grabbed a newspaper and sat down to eat. The headline in the Casper paper said what he had been waiting for. Man Found Dead at Hell’s Half Acre – Cause of Death Under Investigation. Duke could not help himself; he started to laugh, again.

End of the Day

Writing on a Frosty Wyoming Morning

Sometimes it takes a great frosty morning to get enough inspiration to write.

Mountainside frost in Guernsey State Park this morning

I often wonder how the mountain men and early explorers handled winter. I have read the stories but am not sure they can relate how tough it must have been.

North Platte River above Guernsey, Wyoming

Winter can be hard, but it also can be beautiful - as it was today on this frosty Wyoming morning.

Meanwhile, I am into a rewrite on a novel I put away several years ago. I am having fun with it and so far am pretty happy with the story. I am also continuing my research for my Fort Laramie book. Research is slow but fascinating.

I don't look much like a Mt. Man at Fur Trade days at Fort Laramie last summer -one of my favorite places 

Speaking to an elementary Wyoming history class later this week about mountain men. I Will also be talking about the Civilian Conservation Corps to a high school history class this week. Then what? How about some Christmas shopping, and of course, being the head sampler for my wife's Christmas goodies.

What If?

What If?

What could a fence post tell us if  fence posts could talk?

That's how I most often come up with ideas, what if?

What if this way your only ride to town?

I have two new books coming soon, one a collection of Christmas stories from out west, the other a modern-day western. The book of Christmas shorts, there will be 15 in all, 14 are finished, and it truly is a collection of what ifs. This book will be released November first and is so far without a title. However, back to the subject.

What if this guy was a Zombie? What if he lived next door?

Here are the, what ifs, I used for six of the shorts. It is important to know that this collection, all westerns, contain stories for adults and stories for kids. Some stories are of Santa Clause, and some are more traditional Christian Christmas tales. Some are a mystery, some romance and one or two may be a bit on the fantasy side. What if an old cowboy found red ribbons at Christmas time in the sage? What if the stranger was not what he seemed? What if you can go home again?  What if Santa really was? What if Prairie Dogs celebrated Christmas? What if a discontented, modern-day urban dweller slipped back into the 1800s?

What if this place was your new home?

I did this with both of my children's chapter books, Melvin the E Street Ghost and, Then Mike Said, “There’s a Zombie in My Basement." And I did it with my western mystery, Commitment, a book available as an ebook and soon as an actual novel that readers can hold in their hands and place bookmarks on the last page read.

What if you had a taste for Big Horn for supper?

Every writer comes up with lot's of great ideas and I bet most of them, somehow, start with, "What if."

What if you were here and needed to be over there?

Pitching a Book

Fun and interesting day. 

Gave a pitch for my nonfiction book on the CCC today to the Friends of Guernsey State Park.

Take a look at this book here. 

Pitching my book in the CCC Museum in the park

Sold a few books met some great people and got to hang out with others who love the park.

Handing out a few bookmarks

Grateful to see all four of my books are selling a few copies a week. See all my books here!

 Book five will be either my second mystery, this one is sat in modern times, a native Indian and Wyoming Badlands tale or my book of western Christmas stories. Both are finished, but it takes quite a lot of time to get them ready for publication. I want to make sure I get the Christmas stories out on time so will likely do that one next. Depends a bit on how much golf, gardening, and hiking I do when I should be writing. 

View of Brimmer Point from Lakeshore Drive Boat Dock

New Western - Commitment

My new western novel, Commitment, is now available for Kindle download. The book (the old fashioned book itself) should be available in a few days. This is my fourth book and my first western. At a bit over 300 pages and about 85,000 words, it is a nice western mystery. More adventure, mystery than genre western. The book is set mostly in Wyoming but also has secondary settings in Kansas. Want to take a look?
See it here.

Mary O'Hara and My Friend Flicka

Too bad, but it seems the great works of Mary O’Hara seem to be long forgotten in Wyoming. She lived in the Cowboy state for 16 years (1930-1946) and during that time wrote many books. Three of her novels stand out today as Wyoming classics, Thunderhead, Green Grass of Wyoming and My Friend, Flicka.

O’Hara was born and raised on the east coast but spent here early writing life in California working successfully in the silent movie industry. After a divorce and, several years later, a remarriage, she moved with her new husband to Wyoming.

O’Hara’s husband, Helge Sture-Varsa was a swede with army horse raising and training experience. The two bought a ranch in the windswept high country between Laramie and Cheyenne that would become became the famous, Remount Ranch.

They tried to make a living raising sheep and may have been successful if it were not for bad timing, The Great American Depression was just around the corner. They ended up eking out a living delivering milk and raising horses, but it was her writing that would pay the bills.

In 1946, after a second divorce she moved back east and continued writing, but not so much about Wyoming. She also composed music and was a rather successful musician along with her musical scores.

Her books are rich with Wyoming landscape, weather and animals and her love of horse’s shows throughout her works.

O’Hara died at the age of 95 after a rich and rewarding life of writing, composing and travel.

Still great reading today – give her a try. Unfortunately it looks, after a quick search, that none of her books have been converted to e-book formats. But there are many choices of new and used copies available from one cent up to a bit over ten dollars.

I do believe that, summer has, at long last, reached Wyoming. Feeling good!

Campsite at Fort Laramie

It is always fun to take a trip back in time. This weekend was the annual Mountain Man/Trapper rendezvous as Fort Laramie.


Trapping Brigade Leader - Only Person Wealthy Enough to get a Painting of Himself

 

 I like reading about and writing about the Trapper/Mountain Man time, 1820-1840, not sure that books from this era are as popular as they once were but it was a fascinating time in history. 
 

Non-camp Trader Pedaling His Wears

 

In 1834 Robert Campbell and William Sublette built their trading post on the Laramie River. This fort named Fort William, later became Fort John, and when the government bought it, as an army outpost, it became Fort Laramie.


Well Chosen Campsite

 

No cameras were around in the fort’s heyday, but I did my best, with a little photo editing and the help of a few modern day Mountain Men, to capture camp life at the fort before it became a destination for all wagons west.

Breaking Camp

Read a Lot - Write a Lot

       Read a post earlier today in which a writer said they didn’t read much, not before they became a writer or after. Seems strange to me that someone would write but not read much. Claimed they didn’t have the time. I believe writers need to find the time. Many writers read a whole lot more than I do, but I do manage more than 50 books a year. But I also read, maybe too many, blogs, magazines and newspapers. Some days I read so much I get no writing done, none at all.

Stephen King, who has sold a few books himself, once said. “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

My problem is I read too much, and write too little. But I have other income, outside of writing, and do not consider myself a full time writer. I do have a small income from my editing service and from the sale of a few small pieces each year.

Love Wyoming Sunsets - Easter Sunday, Guernsey State Park

I will self-publish three books this summer and see if my writer earnings jump afterward. Not expecting a move into a higher tax bracket, but as someone once said, “you never know.”

Nonfiction Book Finished

Well, I have another one finished. This one is a nonfiction work on the Civilian Conservation Corps and their building of the state park in Guernsey, Wyoming. I still have photo work and footnote work left to finish but the text is completed and one proofing also is complete.

This one I will self-publish, because it is for a small local market, but it has been both educational and fun. I wanted to hold it to 140-160 pages (both text and photos) looks like I will be close, still fitting photos to size I need. The text will run about 26,000 words and 80 photos will make the book and the work of the CCC understandable.

The entire process has taken only about six weeks. Soon it will be weather for the garden, golf and hiking in the park, then my writing will slow down. Oh, and some fishing and lots of photography.

 

 

Why I Love Charles Dickens

When I was in high school our librarian liked to suggest books or authors to students she believed might like them. That is how my live long love of the works of Charles Dickens started. She suggested I try, Oliver Twist and I couldn’t put it down. My second Dickens' book was, A Tale of Two Cities. Who doesn’t love the greatest opening lines in all of fiction?

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”

Dickens led an incredible story book life. He father was imprisoned for debt and he was forced to work in a factory for pennies a day. Many would have accepted their lot and told all who would listen their tales of woe. But not Dickens, he read. He has often been described as an autodidact, and I suppose he was. He read, he learned and he remembered, forever.

Dickens intellect not only got him out of the blacking factory it made him famous. By age 24, only 12 years after being forced into the boot black factory, he was one of the most famous people in England. He reached the fame through the publication of his, Pickwick Papers. The papers were printed in installments and became the most widely read articles in all of Europe.

Dickens never returned to school, nor did he need to. His formal education ended after elementary school and after Shakespeare he may be the most famous of all English writers. His works are still selling today, his Tale of Two Cites, I referenced above has sold over 200 million copies. Because of his tough upbringing Dickens remained a champion of the poor and down trodden throughout his life giving both time and money to many helpful causes.

Born a pauper to a dead beat father Dickens story is remarkable. He could have been forgotten by the age of 12, instead he spent the next 46 years becoming one of the most beloved authors in all of the English language. Charles Dickens life ended too soon at 58, he was buried with kings and queens in Westminster Abby. Quite a finish for someone who started the race in last.

 

 

 

 

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Richard Wheeler - An Accidental Novelist

Richard S. Wheeler’s, An Accidental Novelist –A literary Memoir, is so well done and so mesmerizing that it seems I was with him every step of the way. Wheeler who weaves some of the very best western literature ever written is again at his best with this one.

He tells the story of his life through his journey from a, not sure this job’s for me, newspaper-man to successful author. It is a story with settings from the upper Midwest, to southwestern desert and finally home in the mountains of Montana. Wheeler, like he does in his western tails, reels in the reader from the start using his unique blend of storytelling through truthfulness, humor and historical context.

The story is also an emotional journey, from happily married through heart wrenching divorce to the lonely writer and full circle to happily married and fulfilled in Montana.

For anyone who loves westerns, wants to be a writer, is a writer, or just wants to read a heck-of-a-good book, this one is definitely for you. How good was it? As I finished the last page, I couldn’t stop and immediately downloaded the first of his wonderful Barnaby Skye novels, Skyes West – Rendezvous, and started reading. This was a novel I read and enjoyed thirty years ago, and it is still captivating. Today I believe I will download another of Mr. Wheeler’s works.

Think you have read the best western books ever? Not if you have not read Mr. Wheeler.

Crafting a Story From 75 Year Old Diaries

The following represents a week in the life of a farm wife, 1938, taken from my grandmothers diaries. I added only a little to clarify, where needed.

 

Day 1 - High of 18 washed clothes, they all dried. One of her sons stop

 

Day 2 –Cold all day strong NW wind went, cleaned hen house started to crochet baby booties for new grand son

Went to card party won high prize

 

Day 3 – Fourteen below zero froze in the house, what snow there is in piles, clear and windy.  Daughter-in-law over while her husband took sheep to sale

Lux Radio Theater, “Green Light”, grandma sick

 

Day 4 – Blizzard in morning, kept daughter home from school, did mending and crocheting, finished baby booties

 

Day 5 - Mended socks all pm, a son visited but was heading to town to a BB game, 8 below clear and cold sewed and ironed in morning, varnished table and chairs

 

 

Day 6 - Cleaned upstairs and downstairs baked bread, snowed heavy with west wind. Six above, cleaned upstairs bathroom and basement. Noted a granddaughter turns 2 today.   Her husband took three hogs to sell in town. Club in the afternoon, a son and daughter in law visited in eve.

 

 

 

Day 7 - Warmer with light rain went to card party.

Nice day should have washed but needed to go to town to get my new teeth, they have been out for 6 weeks but will wait some more, not ready yet.

Visited daughter, her daughter was ill. Turned cold, turned to ice.

 

 

Next time - a discussion of what could be learned from a week of very short diary entries, there is some pretty good stuff here.

Mountain Man James Clyman

To casual readers of the early American west the name James Clyman may not be known. But it is because of Clyman that we know as much as we do about the mountain man period. Clyman kept journals and many years later wrote the story of his time in the Rocky Mountain West. Clyman had what he called, “a smattering of education,” but from the mountains, at that time, he was well educated.

Clyman was born in Virginia in 1792, grew up to be a farmer, fought in the war of 1812, later worked as a store keeper and surveyor in Indiana and Illinois. In 1823, at the end of a surveying job, he found himself, at age 31, unemployed and unmarried in Saint Louis where he met William Ashley, a meeting that changed his life. 

Clyman joined the Ashley party, became a mountain man and stayed with Ashley until 1827. During this time he fought the Arikara, saved the life of two famous mountain men, Jed Smith and Sublette, and walked 600 miles across Wyoming and Nebraska, packing a rifle and only 11 bullets. The long walk must have been enough for Clyman. He moved back to Illinois and set up a store in late 1827 or early 1828. When the Blackhawk War broke out in 1832 he joined up.

The war may have whetted his appetite for adventure or danger and he soon went back west. This time he lasted three years before moving far west and settling permanently in the Napa Valley in 1845. Clyman lived another 36 years, passing away in 1881 at the age of 88.

James Clyman’s book, Journal Of A Mountain Man, edited by Linda Hasselstrom and reprinted in Win Blevins, Classics of the fur Trade Series, is an invaluable read for those looking for fur trade information. There are so many terrific stories of mountain man life in this book, I wish I could tell them all, and in this book the truth is stranger, and a great deal more exciting, than fiction.

Mountain Men and History Lessons

Watching a football game on television Saturday, Wyoming V. Utah State, as part of the promo they mentioned Jim Bridger and the fact that he was the first white man to visit the Great Salt Lake and the first into Yellowstone. Bridger may very well have been the first non-Indian into the Great Salt Lake Valley, at least I and many other western historians believe that. But the first into Yellowstone, I don’t think so.

John Colter, like Bridger, a Virginian was much more likely to have been the first into Yellowstone. It is most unlikely the two ever met and very possible that Colter was in Yellowstone while Bridger was but a toddler with a birth date in 1804.

Bridger became a legend in the west and Colter seems to have just slipped away into history. Colter left the west by 1810 and never returned, leaving a legend in the making, unmade.

Colter never lived long enough for people to believe any of his tales of Yellowstone. He died of Jaundice in 1813 leaving behind $124 and change. But then the story of the almost a legend in the west turns bizarre. He was buried on Tunnel Hill near present day Dundee Missouri. In 1926 his remains, along with the remains of five or six others, were dug up during a railroad excavation of the site. All were dumped somewhere nearby, buried in an unmarked embankment.

Not a very fitting finish to the first white man in to Yellowstone.

Reading a One Hundred Year Old Text

Sometimes history can be entertaining. I spent years trying to make history come alive and be relevant to today’s kids. Maybe I missed the point, I should have just made it up, or most of it anyway.

I am researching/reading a Wyoming History book published in 1918. Historians have widely panned the work, as too much fiction and not enough fact. I don’t find that true for much of the text, but some of it does read more like the society page of a hundred year old weekly than it does true history.

When the author described one member of the legislature, as one who didn’t like to speak in public, not sure we have any politicians like that anymore. It made me want to read on. Not many history books have punch lines, this one does. He goes on to say that this particular law maker was more concerned with the, after the secession was over day, than he was the law making process of the work day. The punch line – “the longest speech he ever made in his years in the state legislature, was, ‘I make a motion we adjourn.’ Now that is some pretty good history.

I.S. Bartlett    History of Wyoming, published 1918

https://openlibrary.org/books/OL13493080M/History_of_Wyoming.

Now That Was a Bad Week

Started off the week with a sprained ankle, guess maybe guys my age should quit playing basketball, even if I do still have considerable game. OK, actually I did it stepping off a two inch step in Jackson Hole last weekend. By Tuesday I added a nose running, sneezing, itching eyes, cold. Thursday the flu set in. Today I am about as miserable as anyone can be.

I will attempt to remedy my maladies by watching dozens of football games in the next 48 hours, I believe it will work. And I have all the channels to give it a tremendous effort.

Wish me luck, I know it will be tough, but I have pillows properly arranged on the couch, assorted drinks, heating pads, throws, lap top, kindle reader and other goodies to get me through my time of need. And, of course, my wife is tending to me quite well. She went down to one of the local stop and rob’s and picked up a 7UP for me. When I finish it, I believe that will make, exactly one 7UP in the past several decades. Hey, tastes pretty good.