On the way to Cripple Creek Photo (c) Doris McCraw
Early
Days in the Cripple Creek Gold Region:
Some
of the earliest people in the region were probably the Utes and
various other Native American tribes. Little is written about
that time and what is known is mostly supposition. It appears they have found artifacts from the native people
around the Mt. Pisgah area. It may have been used as a signal
mountain in those early days. Between 1842 and 1844 Capt. John C. Fremont explored the
region and his travels around Pikes Peak took him into the Cripple
Creek area. As the '59r's headed toward South Park and the mines there, they traveled just north of the Cripple Creek area.
During
the Hayden survey, some members of the survey found gold specimens. However, nothing came of that find. In 1874, H.T. Wood, of the Hayden survey party, returned to the Cripple Creek district. He was accompanied by other prospectors who tried to find gold. It was Wood who organized the district under the name of Mt. Pisgah. Starting in those early days, the hunt was on
to find the source of the gold 'float' from that early survey. That in turn, led to the run on the
district. Despite the effort, none of those early prospectors were successful in finding the source.
In
1884 a second 'discovery' started a second rush into the area. This time there were
as many as 5,000 people who rushed to the area searching for that
elusive gold. The 'founder' of the rush, 'Chicken Bill', it was leaned had 'salted' the area. He escaped the area just ahead of the lynching party.
Headstone of Robert 'Bob' Womack Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs, CO Photo (c) Doris McCraw
This last event was still in most people's memories when Bob Womanck made the real strike in the region in 1890. As a result, it took time for people to accept the truth.
Since my last post, I've celebrated the publication of my anthology/box set: "Old West Stories of Love". Some of the stories take place near the Cripple Creek area. It helps when you can walk the areas you write about.
(C) Doris McCraw
Until Next Time: Stay safe, Stay happy, and Stay healthy.
Hi everyone! This is something that intrigued me the other day and I wondered what you all thought about it, too. I was on Facebook and saw this question: WHAT IS THE VERY BEST SLOW DANCE SONG?
Y’all know that got my little mind to wondering…and WANDERING! I had to scroll through many of the answers just to see what people thought—but not before I answered with my pick. The very best slow dance song (and in my opinion ONE of the very best songs ever recorded) is Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers. I am careful to always say “by the Righteous Brothers” because this song had a lonnnnng history of covers and remakes before the Righteous Brothers ever made their version of it. And theirs is the best.
But what did other people think was the best? There were so many opinions—and some were songs I had not ever heard of that became popular in the 90’s and 2000’s. By the same token, I’m sure there were plenty of songs that were popular in long years gone by that I haven’t ever heard, either.
Since many of us write historical romance, this also made me realize that songs of those old days in history might not be as meaningful to us now as they were then—maybe they even seem childish and simple, not a song that would speak of love to your partner as we would think of today.
Some of the others that people listed as the “very best slow dance song” were:
At Last by Etta James
Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton
In the Still of the Night
I Only Have Eyes for You
Only You by the Platters
Earth Angel
These are just a few! The thread was full of songs, too many to list here. My hubby and I never had a “special” song. In our early years, we had our own band and played mainly country rock and easy listenin’ music, so I heard (and sang) a lot of different songs, but Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers was always my favorite song (and that was one we never performed, because who can top the Righteous Brothers?)
What is YOUR favorite slow dance song? (This did make me wonder what my latest character couple, Johnny and Krissy, might have wanted to slow dance to way back in 1899!)
Of course, July 14 is Bastille Day, the holiday celebrating the beginning of the French Revolution, but since that has little to do with the Old West, we’ll just skim past that fact. Instead, we’ll focus on the inventor of a popular contraption in the modern world: the ice machine!
On July 14, 1850, Dr. John Gorrie demonstrated his newly-created artificial ice machine at a party. He had originally designed the contraption to combat Yellow Fever, as he believed that cold was the key to treatment. He noted that "Nature would terminate the fevers by changing the seasons." In 1844, he began, under the pseudonym “Jenner” (in tribute to Edward Jenner, who invented the smallpox vaccine), to write a series of articles entitled “On the Prevention of Malarial Diseases.” According to the articles, Gorrie had constructed an imperfect refrigeration machine in May of that year.
"If the air were highly compressed,” Gorrie wrote in his notes, “it would heat up by the energy of compression. If this compressed air were run through metal pipes cooled with water, and if this air cooled to the water temperature was expanded down to atmospheric pressure again, very low temperatures could be obtained, even low enough to freeze water in pans in a refrigerator box." The compressor could be powered by horse, water, wind driven sails, or steam.
Dr. Gorrie’s basic principle for his ice machine is the one still used most often: cooling by the rapid expansion of gases. Gorrie used two double-acting force pumps and first condensed, then rarified air. The apparatus reduced the temperature of the compressed air by injecting a small amount of water into it. The compressed air was submerged in coils surrounded by a circulating bath of cooling water. The injected water was allowed to condense out into a holding tank, then was released (or rarified) into a tank of lower pressure that contained brine. This lowered the temperature of the brine to 26 degrees Fahrenheit or below. Gorrie then immersed drip-fed, brick-sized, oil-coated metal containers of rainwater into the brine, creating ice “bricks.” The cold air was then released in an open system into the atmosphere.
A model of Dr. Gorrie's machine
The first known artificial refrigeration was demonstrated in 1748 by William Cullen, when he performed a laboratory demonstration allowing ethyl ether to boil into a vacuum. In 1805, American Oliver Evans designed (but never actually built) a refrigeration machine that would have used vapor instead of liquid. And using Evans’ refrigeration concept, Jacob Perkins of the U.S. and England developed an experimental volatile liquid, closed-cycle compressor in 1834.
The commercial refrigeration business is believed to have been initiated by American businessman Alexander C. Twinning. He used sulphuric ether in 1856 and shortly afterward, Australian James Harrison checked out the refrigerators used by Gorrie and Twinning and introduced vapor (ether) compression refrigeration to the brewing and meat-packing industries. Then, in 1860, Ferdinand P.E. Carre of France was granted a patent for development of a closed, ammonia-absorption system. This laid the foundation for widespread modern refrigeration. Carre used rapidly-expanding ammonia in his machine, unlike the air used in vapor compression machines. Ammonia liquifies at a much lower temperature than water and is thus able to absorb more heat. This technique became (and still is) the most widely used cooling method, although modern machines use a number of synthetic refrigerants so there is no need to worry about the toxic danger and odor of ammonia leaks.
Model of the machine (back view)
Dr. John Gorrie was honored for his invention by his home state of Florida, when his statue was placed in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. In 1899, a monument was erected by the Southern Ice Exchange in the small coastal town of Apalachicola, where he had developed his machine.
I grew up in the late 50s and 60s listening to the country music
of that era. I stuck with country music through the 70s. I made it into the 80s
but, by the late 80s, country music as I knew and loved was headed in a
direction that, with a few exceptions, I wasn’t interested going. So I didn’t.
(Get off my lawn.)
The old west gunfighter and trail ballads, drinking songs, and
revenge songs had an influence on me that was, and still is, every bit as
strong as the impact Louis L’Amour’s books left with me. My lifelong interest,
perhaps fascination bordering on obsession, with everything old west—truth,
legends, and myths alike—have roots in those old cowboy and country songs.
I’m inviting you to read along with me this year as I post one or
two nostalgic-for-me country ballads on the first Wednesday of each month. I
will share a snippet of trivia about each song along with a YouTube video.
Each month, I will include a link back to the previous month’s
article as reference to those songs. The common thread that runs among the
songs I’ve chosen for this musical memory lane excursion is tragic
lost love.
This month’s song is Running
Gun by Marty Robbins.
Running Gun was written by Jim Glaser and Tompall Glaser. Marty Robbins recorded the song in April 1959
and released it in September 1959 on his album Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs.
Running Gun tells the story of a gun-for-hire outlaw who loses the draw against a bounty hunter’s gun. The ballad begins with
the outlaw thinking about Jeannie, the woman he loves and left behind until he reaches the safety of Old Mexico and can send for her to meet him. The
song ends with his dying thoughts of Jeannie, and his regret for causing
Jeannie to waste her life loving a running gun.
In my western romance novel, The Comanchero’s Bride, which,
by the way, was inspired by Marty Robbins’ song Meet Me Tonight in Laredo, I
wrote in a scene that is reminiscent of the confrontation between the ‘running
gun’ outlaw and the bounty hunter. Here is the scene from my novel. (500 words)
Excerpt from The Comanchero’s Bride:
At the livery, Mingo remained in the shadows where he could
see both ways along the street. Opening the wagon doors just wide enough to
allow him to pass through, he eased his way inside. Speaking in a low soothing
tone to his horses, he packed and saddled them under the moonlight coming in
from two windows. Opening half the double doors, he led the two riding horses
out the back, tied them to a corral rail, and returned for the packhorse.
He no more than reached the packhorse when a cold voice in
the shadows stopped him in his tracks.
“Don’t turn around, Valderas.”
Mingo froze. A few more steps and he would have been on the
off side of the packhorse, but where he was, he had no protection.
“I’ve got a good bead right between your shoulders. I know
about your fast draw and the price on your head. I’ve also heard stories about
your throwing knives, so keep your hands where I can see them.”
“You know me. But who are you? What do you want?” Mingo
didn’t care. He knew the challenge from the shadows was a bounty hunter. He
needed the man to talk so he could pinpoint his location.
“I came out of El Paso. A man named Jack added to the price
on your head—dead or alive—and some politician is offering a pretty penny on
top of that to bring in the woman you have with you. He wants her alive.”
From the sound of the man’s voice, he hadn’t moved and was
off to his right. Mingo fought the urge to whirl and fire, but shooting blindly
was not his way. He wouldn’t risk a wild shot that could injure a horse, and
gunfire would bring others into the fray. Shadows were both his enemy and ally,
depending upon how he used it.
“The way’s clear behind you, so back towards the open wagon
door, and keep your hands away from your body. When I heard the talk of a
Mexican man traveling with a white woman, and they were staying at the hotel, I
figured I’d hit pay dirt. I was just supposed to worry you into making a wrong
move. Never thought I’d be the one to catch you.
“I’m taking the woman to El Paso. You, I’m locking up in the
back room of the saloon for safe keeping…unless you give me an excuse to kill
you right now, which I’ve a yearning to do. I can’t miss at this range. It
wouldn’t do my reputation any damage to be the man who took down Mingo
Valderas.”
Now, he knew who he was up against. Earl Johns was vicious
and a killer, a back-shooting coward. Mingo inched backward, buying thinking
time.
“Where’s the woman, Valderas?”
“There is no wom—”
“She’s too close for your comfort.” Isabel’s voice cut
through the night.
The sound of a shotgun hammer pulling back was an angry,
lethal sound that made the hairs on Mingo’s arm prickle.
As a related diversion, you might enjoy this Reddit ‘fan theory’ thread about the songs Big Iron and Running Gun being the same story, but told from the opposing perspectives of Big Iron’s Texas Red and the Arizona Ranger. The fan theories are a stretch, but entertaining, nonetheless.
Until next time,
Kaye Spencer
Lasterday Stories
writing through history one romance upon a time
www.kayespencer.com
Have you ever seen a piece of news that just begged for further research? Sometimes you find enough for a nonfiction piece. Other times it ends up being a nugget for a story.
The below clipping is from San Franciso, CA. newspaper in 1879 that inspired a nonfiction piece on the death of Lafayette Shidleler and his murderer Joe Ward.
That same Joe Ward was the model for one of my characters in the novel, "The Outlaw's Letter".
There are some other tidbits that may warrant further investigation. We will see. In the meantime, the Smoky Hill River Trail has caught my eye.
How do you find your story inspiration? I'd really like to know.
Until Next Time: Stay safe, Stay happy, and Stay healthy.
Favorite western movies? I’ve got a few. But if I had to choose, I think it would have to be The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
This Hollywood classic, starring John Wayne as Tom Doniphon, Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance, Vera Miles as Hallie Ericson, and Jimmy Stewart as Ransom “Ranse” Stoddard has just about everything a western cinema fan could hope for: action, romance, right-over-might…and an unforgettable theme song.
Dorothy M. Johnson’s short story was made into a movie in 1962. It’s one of my oldest “movie” memories, as I was five years old when it made the rounds to the movie theaters and drive-ins.
Here’s the description of the movie according to Wickipedia:b>
Elderly U.S. Senator Ransom "Ranse" Stoddard and his wife Hallie arrive by train in the small western town of Shinbone, to attend the funeral of an apparent nobody, a local rancher named Tom Doniphon. Prior to the funeral, Hallie goes off with a friend to visit a burned-down house with obvious significance to her. As they pay their respects to the dead man at the undertaker's establishment, the senator is interrupted with a request for a newspaper interview. Stoddard grants the request.
As the interview with the local reporter begins, the film flashes back several decades as Stoddard reflects on his first arrival at Shinbone by stagecoach to establish a law practice.
A gang of outlaws, led by gunfighter Liberty Valance, hold up the stagecoach. Stoddard is brutally beaten, left for dead and later rescued by Doniphon. Stoddard is nursed back to health by restaurant owner Peter Ericson (John Qualen), his wife Nora (Jeanette Nolan) and daughter Hallie. It later emerges that Hallie is Doniphon's love interest.
Shinbone's townsfolk are regularly menaced by Valance and his gang. Cowardly local marshal Link Appleyard (Andy Devine) is ill prepared and unwilling to enforce the law. Doniphon is the only local courageous enough to challenge Valance's lawless behavior.
"You, Liberty...I said YOU pick it up..."
On one occasion, Doniphon even intervenes on Stoddard's behalf, when Valance publicly humiliates the inept Easterner. Valance trips Stoddard who is waiting tables at Peter's restaurant. Stoddard spills Doniphon's order causing Doniphon to intervene. Valance stands down and leaves. Doniphon tells Stoddard he needs to either leave the territory or buy a gun. Stoddard says he will do neither.
Stoddard is an advocate for justice under the law, not man. He earns the respect and affection of Hallie when he offers to teach her to read after he discovers, to her embarrassment, she's had no formal education. Stoddard's influence on Hallie and the town is further evidenced when he begins a school for the townspeople with Hallie's help. But, secretly, Stoddard borrows a gun and practices shooting.
Doniphon shows Stoddard his plans for expanding his house in anticipation of marrying Hallie, and reminds him that Hallie is his girl. Doniphon gives Stoddard a shooting lesson but humiliates him by shooting a can of paint which spills on Stoddard's suit. Doniphon warns that Valance will be just as devious, but Stoddard hits him in the jaw and leaves.
In Shinbone, the local newspaper editor-publisher Dutton Peabody (Edmond O'Brien) writes a story about local ranch owners' opposition to the territory's potential statehood. Valance convinces the ranchers that if they will hire him, he can get elected as a delegate to represent the cattlemen's interest. Shinbone's residents meet to elect two delegates to send to the statehood convention at the territorial capital. Valance attempts to bully the townspeople into electing him as a delegate. Eventually, Stoddard and Peabody are chosen. Valance assaults and badly beats Peabody after Peabody publishes two unflattering articles about Valance and his gang. The villains destroy Peabody's office. Valance also calls Stoddard out for a duel later in the evening after Valance loses his bid for delegate. Valance leaves saying "Don't make us come and get you!" Doniphon tells Stoddard he should leave town and even offers to have his farmhand, Pompey, escort him. But when Stoddard sees that Peabody has been nearly beaten to death, he calls out Valance. Stoddard then retrieves a carefully wrapped gun from under his bed and heads toward the saloon where Valance is. Valance hears he has been called out and justifies going out in self-defense. His wins his last poker hand before the duel with Aces and Eights.
"Pompey..."
In the showdown, Valance toys with Stoddard by firing a bullet near his head and then wounding him in the arm, which causes Stoddard to drop his gun. Valance allows Stoddard to bend down and retrieve the gun. Valance then aims to kill Stoddard promising to put the next bullet "right between the eyes," when Stoddard fires and miraculously kills Valance with one shot to the surprise of everyone, including himself. Hallie responds with tearful affection. Doniphon congratulates Stoddard on his success, and notices how Hallie lovingly cares for Stoddard's wounds.
Sensing that he has lost Hallie's affections, Doniphon gets drunk in the saloon and drives out Valance's gang, who have been calling for Stoddard to be lynched for Valance's "murder." The barman tries to tell Doniphon's farmhand Pompey (Woody Strode) that he cannot be served (due to his race), to which Doniphon angrily shouts: "Who says he can't? Pour yourself a drink, Pompey." Pompey instead drags Doniphon home, where the latter sets fire to an uncompleted bedroom he was adding to his house in anticipation of marrying Hallie. The resulting fire destroys the entire house.
Stoddard is hailed as "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and based on this achievement, is nominated as the local representative to the statehood convention. Stoddard is reluctant to serve based upon his notoriety for killing a man in a gunfight. At this point, in a flashback within the original flashback, Doniphon tells Stoddard that it was he (Doniphon), hidden across the street, who shot and killed Valance in cold blood, and not Stoddard in self-defense. Stoddard finds Doniphon and asks him why he shot Valance. He did it for Hallie, he says, because he understood that "she's your girl now". Doniphon encourages Stoddard to accept the nomination: "You taught her to read and write, now give her something to read and write about!"
Stoddard returns to the convention and is chosen as representative. He marries Hallie and eventually becomes the governor of the new state. He then becomes a two term U.S. senator, then the American ambassador to Great Britain, a U.S. senator again, and at the time of Doniphon's funeral is the favorite for his party's nomination as vice president.
The film returns to the present day and the interview ends. The newspaper man, understanding now the truth about the killing of Valance, burns his notes stating: "This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
"Hallie, who put the cactus rose on Tom's coffin?"
Stoddard and Hallie board the train for Washington, melancholy about the lie that led to their prosperous life. With the area becoming more and more civilized, Stoddard decides, to Hallie's delight, to retire from politics and return to the territory to set up a law practice. When Stoddard thanks the train conductor for the train ride and the many courtesies extended to him by the railroad, the conductor says, "Nothing's too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance!" Upon hearing the comment, Stoddard and his wife stare off thoughtfully into the distance.
As a side note, one of the many reasons this film holds a special place in my heart is because I remember it as being the first time I made the connection between a scene onscreen representing a flashback. Remember the “flashback within a flashback” that the Wikipedia article mentions? The smoke from John Wayne’s cigarette moves and flows to take over the screen as he tells Jimmy Stewart, “You didn’t kill Liberty Valance. Think back…” That smoke took us back to the truth of what had happened, and my five-year-old brain was shocked—and enamored, even then, with the idea that time passage, or remembrances could be shown through the haze of cigarette smoke. It was the moment of truth for Ransom Stoddard.
For me, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance embodies the core of the west—good and evil, and how sometimes “the point of a gun was the only law”—and it all depended on the man who held the weapon.
Liberty represented the purest evil. Ranse was determined to fight him with the law he treasured—the desire to do things the legal way blinding him to the fact that Liberty didn’t respect that. In the beginning, his naivete is almost painful to watch, providing Liberty some rich entertainment. Though Tom finds it amusing, his growing respect for Ranse’s perseverance is portrayed to perfection by that familiar downward glance of John Wayne’s. Accompanied by the half-smile and his slow advice-giving drawl, the character of Tom Doniphon is drawn so that by the point at which he sees the handwriting on the wall and burns down the house he built for Hallie, the viewer’s sympathy shifts, briefly, to the circumstances Tom finds himself in.
But Ranse is determined to vanquish Valance one way or the other—with a lawbook or a gun—whatever it takes. In the final showdown, the lines of resignation are etched in Tom Doniphon’s face, and we know he is honor-bound to do the thing he’ll regret forever: save Ranse Stoddard’s life and lose Hallie to him.
I love the twist. Ranse truly believes he’s killed Valance. Again, to do the honorable thing, Tom tells him the truth about what really happened.
What do you think? If you were Ranse, would you want to know you really were not the man who shot Liberty Valance? Or would you want to be kept in the dark? If you were Tom, would you have ever told him? It’s a great movie!
Now you can sing along!
THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE
When Liberty Valance rode to town the womenfolk would hide, they'd hide
When Liberty Valance walked around the men would step aside
'cause the point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood
When it came to shootin' straight and fast---he was mighty good.
>From out of the East a stranger came, a law book in his hand, a man
The kind of a man the West would need to tame a troubled land
'cause the point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood
When it came to shootin' straight and fast---he was mighty good.
Many a man would face his gun and many a man would fall
The man who shot Liberty Valance, he shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all.
The love of a girl can make a man stay on when he should go, stay on
Just tryin' to build a peaceful life where love is free to grow
But the point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood
When the final showdown came at last, a law book was no good.
Alone and afraid she prayed that he'd return that fateful night, aww that night
When nothin' she said could keep her man from goin' out to fight
>From the moment a girl gets to be full-grown the very first thing she learns
When two men go out to face each other only one retur-r-r-ns
Everyone heard two shots ring out, a shot made Liberty fall
The man who shot Liberty Valance, he shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all.
The man who shot Liberty Valance, he shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all.
Western Fictioneers is proud to announce the winners of the 13th Annual Peacemaker Awards, presented for the finest in Western fiction published in 2022. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists, and special thanks to the judges who make the Peacemaker Awards possible.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT PEACEMAKER
L.J. Martin
BEST FIRST NOVEL
Winner: BONE NECKLACE, Julia Sullivan (Brandylane Publishing Inc)
On June 9, 1860, the course of American literature was changed forever. Popular author Mrs. Ann Stephens (she wrote nearly 30 novels!) authored the very first Dime Novel, titledMalaseka, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter.
As most of us Western authors know, pulp magazines (or pulpwood, to give the full name) got their start in 1896, when Frank Munsey converted The Argosy, his magazine, to lower-cost pulp paper. From then until the 1950s, the pulps were the main source of “popular” fiction (as opposed to hardcover books and slick-paper magazines). Well, before pulps came the dime novel, a type of periodical which resembled today’s paperback book.
In the UK, this sort of publication was called the “penny dreadful.” “Story papers” for young men were also similar, and quite popular. Dime Novel is actually an umbrella term for several formats of popular fiction that existed until 1921. The name began when Beadle’s Dime Novels first published Mrs. Stephens’ tale in 1860, with a 4 -by 6-inch format. However, other formats were also used, such as an 8- by 12-inch size, running two to three columns of story (similar to the look of the UK’s “story papers”). The first works were serialized, then reprinted in single issues, but the series often ran several hundred weekly issues.
Later, some of the stories were reprinted in smaller formats, similar to today’s paperbacks, although they were usually saddle-stitched with a cover of the same material as the interior. Some of these reprints cost a nickel, so the term “nickel weekly” came into being. Color printing for the covers came still later.
Genres for the stories were mixed. In the 1860s and 70s, Western characters were the most popular, with Deadwood Dick and Buffalo Bill becoming ongoing popular protagonists. In the 1880s and 90s, crime and detective fiction became more popular, with characters such as “Old Sleuth” (the first time this term was used to mean a detective—the publisher even copyrighted the name so it couldn’t be reused). The most popular of these detectives was Nick Carter, who lasted all the way from dime novel to pulp fiction, radio, movies, TV, and even a later men’s paperback series. Science fiction also existed in the dime novels, beginning with the classic Steam Man of the Prairie, with a series of “Edisonade” characters who inspired the later Tom Swift stories.
In the very first dime novel, Malaseka, was a tragedy of errors. A young frontier settler, Danforth, has secretly married Malaseka, an Indian princess, and their child is destined to be the future chieftain. However, when an Indian brave is killed by another settler, the tribe believes Danforth to be the guilty party. They attack the settlement and many are killed, including the Indian chief and his son-in-law, Danforth. With his final words, Danforth urges his wife to travel to Manhattan and live with his parents, who will welcome her and their son.
Of course, this turns out to be a terrible idea. Old Mr. Danforth now despises the Indians who have killed his son, so he takes the child away from Malaseka and he and his wife raise their grandson as their own, then send him to Europe for an education. Malaseka eventually returns to her home on the frontier, where she becomes friends with Sarah, the daughter of Danforth’s friend, who is the same age as her lost son. Eventually, of course, Sarah Jones goes to Manhattan to be educated as a lady, and she meets the elderly Danforths and befriends them. In due course, William returns home and he and Sarah fall in love and agree to marry.
When the happy young couple return to the frontier settlement to celebrate with her family, Malaseka tells William she is his true mother. William, raised to despise everything Indian, kills himself rather than “debase” Sarah with his blood. They liked their stories dark back then, and the idea of an Indian and a White actually having a happy marriage just couldn’t be imagined.
Your character could easily have read this story. They may have eagerly anticipated the next installment of the series. Even if they didn’t purchase the dime novel themselves, they could have heard it being discussed or had it read to them as a child. Malaseka’s tale would have been almost as familiar to people in that age as Star Wars & Star Trek is to us today.
I grew up in the late 50s and 60s listening to the country
music of that era. I stuck with country music through the 70s. I made it into
the 80s but, by the late 80s, country music as I knew and loved was headed in a
direction that, with a few exceptions, I wasn’t interested going. So I didn’t.
(Get off my lawn.)
The old west gunfighter and trail ballads, drinking songs,
and revenge songs had an influence on me that was, and still is, every bit as
strong as the impact Louis L’Amour’s books left with me. My lifelong interest,
perhaps fascination bordering on obsession, with everything old west—truth,
legends, and myths alike—have roots in those old cowboy and country songs.
I’m inviting you to read along with me this year as I post
one or two nostalgic-for-me country ballads on the first Wednesday of each
month. I will share a snippet of trivia about each song along with a YouTube
video.
Each month, I will include a link back to the previous
month’s article as reference to those songs. The common thread that runs among
the songs I’ve chosen for this musical memory lane excursion is tragic
lost love.
This month’s song is another one by Billy Walker, Matamoros.
Matamoros, a track
on Walker’s album Cross the Brazos at
Waco, made it to #59 on the country music charts in 1965. Matamoros was written by Kay Arnold, who
also wrote Cross the Brazos at Waco.
This is one of those songs I've heard a gazillion times,
but I didn't really hear the lyrics. It always
seemed like a straight-up tragic love story ballad with the woman sacrificing
herself to save the man she loves. Hearing this song with ‘new ears’, I now
realize the depth of the jealousy and control that precipitates a death in this
song parallels another familiar old west ballad.
I will come back to that.
Matamoros tells
the story of a man recalling how the woman he loved died. These memories make
him feel low as the beggar who sits on
the street. He’s standing in the plaza listening to the music and watching
the couples, while regretting that the woman he loved isn’t there with him.
Let’s pause to listen to the song, then I’ll resume my
commentary.
The man is thinking back about how he fell in love with a
woman with eyes black as midnight. He
says he left her not long ago, but who knows what that really means. It could
have been a week. It could have been a couple of years. Regardless, within the
first few lines, he tells us she made promises to him. We assume they were
promises of her undying love. But, in retrospect, he says her promises were
fickle, yet he also changes his mind and says he realizes the moment she loved me more than life. This man is emotionally
conflicted as he recalls what happened to this woman and his part in her death.
In the midst of this thinking that bounces from the present to the past and back to the present, we realize jealousy, and the perceived unfaithfulness (seems to me
more imagined than real) of the woman is what brought him back to Matamoros …to claimwhat was mine and there’ll be bad trouble if I catch her cheating on me.
The love of my woman is one thing that I’ll
never share.
He gives us no rational reason to believe she hasn’t been
faithful other than his too-much-alone-with-his-thoughts suspicions. This is somewhat similar to the reaction of the narrator in the El Paso lyrics and his perceived
unfaithfulness of Feleena with the wild young cowboy. This Matamoros fellow
jumps to jealous conclusions when he sees the woman laughing and dancing and tossing her raven black hair with a wild young
vaquero similarly to …dashing and
daring, the drink he was sharing with wicked Feleena, the girl that I loved.
Matamoros fellow confronts the young vaquero. A knife fight ensues. The woman jumps between them, and is
killed. The man leaves town and never returns. I say he left out of guilt
more than sorrow.
Any way you interpret this song, it’s an oldie, but a goodie
when it comes to tragic love lost classic country ballads. I’m also delighted
that I finally realized the loose similarities between El
Paso and Matamoros.
Until next time, Kaye Spencer Lasterday Stories writing through history one romance upon a time www.kayespencer.com
We are getting closer to the middle of 2023. It is usually a time of reflection for me. I take stock of where I am in my writing, publishing, and marketing.
In line with that concept, I would appreciate feedback on what you would like to read in my blog posts. As a student of Colorado and Women's History and pretty much an expert on Early Women Doctors in Colorado, which of these three topics would be the most useful to you?
Would you like more marketing information?
Photo (c ) Doris McCraw
Is there interest in joining together to create a series of short 'novels' that tie together on a theme, time frame, or event?
Where would you like to see Western Fictioneers go in the future?
What can I do as I finish my time as President to help make sure this blog and the organization continue to be a vibrant community? Please know, it does take a village to make things happen.
Your feedback will help me to craft the remainder of 2023.
We are getting ready to announce the Peacemaker winners and I want to say, it was a banner year and judging was some of the hardest I've faced. I want to thank everyone who submitted their work. It tells me the genre of the Western is alive and well. We just need to make sure the rest of the world knows what we know, these stories are the stories of not only the past but are a glimpse into the lives we live now.
Thank you each and every one for a great first half of 2023.
Until Next Time: Stay safe, Stay happy, and Stay healthy.
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