On This Day in the Old West: October 8

 October 8, 1871 saw two horrific fires: the Great Chicago Fire and the forest fire that destroyed the town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin and several towns in Michigan. The latter began as a series of smaller fires that were whipped into a major conflagration by high winds and dry conditions. Peshtigo is in northeastern Wisconsin, near Lake Michigan. The fire burned about 1.2 million acres in and around the town and is the deadliest wildfire in recorded history. Somewhere between 1,200 and 2,500 people perished in this fire, which also affected several cities in Michigan (including Holland, Manistee, and Port Huron).  

The setting of small fires was common in the 19^th Century to clear forest land for farming and railroad construction. On the day of the Peshtigo fire, a cold front moved in from the west, bringing strong winds that fanned several small fires out of control. “When a firestorm erupts in a forest,” according to Gess and Lutz (Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History), “it is a blowup, nature’s nuclear explosion.” Firestorms can create superheated flames of at least 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and winds of up to 110 miles per hour. The diameter of such a fire ranges from 1,000 to 10,000 feet. By the time the Peshtigo fire was all over, 1,875 square miles of forest had been consumed. This is an area 50% larger than the state of Rhode Island. In all, twelve communities were destroyed.

 

An accurate death toll has never been determined for this fire because all local records were destroyed in the fire. In 1870, Peshtigo had 1,749 residents. The 1873 Report to the Wisconsin Legislature listed 1,182 names of dead or missing residents. More than 350 bodies were interred in a mass grave, primarily because so many people had died that there was no one left who could identify these poor souls.

 

The fire jumped across the Peshtigo River and burned both sides of the town. Survivors reported seeing fire tornadoes that threw rail cars and houses into the air. Many escaped the inferno by throwing themselves into the river, a well, or other nearby body of water. Some drowned, and others succumbed to hypothermia in the frigid river. The Green Island Light was kept lit during the day because of the obscuring smoke, but the three-masted schooner George L Newman was wrecked offshore anyway, although the crew was rescued. 

 

At the same time, yet another fire burned parts of the Door Peninsula. Because of the coincidence, many incorrectly assumed the flames had jumped the waters of Green Bay. Across the lake to the east, the town of Holland, Michigan, along with nearby areas, burned to the ground. Some 100 miles to the north of Holland, the lumber community of Manistee also went up in flames in what became known as the Great Michigan Fire. Further east, along the shores of Lake Huron, the Port Huron fire swept through Port Huron, Michigan and much of Michigan’s “thumb.”

In Robinsonville (now Champion), Sister Adele Brise and other nuns, plus farmers and their families, fled to a local chapel for protection. Although the fires surrounded the chapel, the building was spared. The chapel is now known as the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help. The fires also spared the then village of Sturgeon Bay, on the east side of the bay.

 

Occurring on the same day, the Great Chicago Fire killed approximately 200 people, destroyed roughly 3.3 square miles of the city, and left more than 100,000 residents homeless. The fire began in a neighborhood southwest of the city center. A long period of hot, dry, windy conditions, plus the wooden construction prevalent in the city, led to the conflagration. The fire leapt the south branch of the Chicago River and destroyed much of central Chicago, then leapt the main branch of the river and consumed the Near North Side.

 

The fire is claimed to have started at around 8:30 pm, in or around a small barn belonging to the O’Leary family. The barn bordered an alley behind 137 DeKoven Street. The shed next to the barn was the first building consumed by the fire. Officials never determined the cause of the blaze, but the rapid spread of the fire was due to a long drought, strong winds from the southwest, and the destruction of the water pumping system. This explains the extensive damage to the mainly wooden city structures. There has been much speculation over the years on a single start to the fire. The most popular tale blames Mrs. O’Leary’s cow, who allegedly kicked over a lantern. Mrs. O’Leary made a convenient scapegoat: she was a poor, Irish catholic immigrant and anti-Irish sentiment was strong during the latter half of the 19^th Century. Other speculations state that a group of men were gambling inside the barn and knocked over a lantern, or that the blaze was related to the other fires in the Midwest that same day. Amateur historian Richard Bales has suggested that the fire started when Daniel “Pegleg” Sullivan, who first reported the fire, ignited hay in the barn while trying to steal milk. 

 

The fire’s spread was aided by the city’s use of wood as the predominant building material in a style called balloon framing. This style of building uses long continuous studs that run from the sill plate to the top plate, with intermediate floor structures let into and nailed to them. Once popular when long lumber was plentiful, balloon framing has largely been replaced by platform framing. More than two-thirds of the structures in Chicago at the time of the fire were made entirely of wood, with most of the buildings topped with highly flammable tar or shingle roofs. All of the city’s sidewalks and many roads were also constructed of wood. Compounding this problem was the fact that Chicago had received only one inch of rain from July 4 to October 8, causing severe drought conditions, while strong southwest winds helped to carry flying embers toward the heart of the city.

 

In 1871, the Chicago Fire Department had only 185 firefighters and 17 horse-drawn steam pumpers to protect the entire city. The initial response by the department was quick, but an error by watchman Matthias Schaffer sent the firefighters to the wrong place, allowing the fire to grow unchecked. An alarm sent form the area near the fire also failed to register at the courthouse where the fire watchmen were, while the firefighters were tired from fighting numerous small fires and one large one in the week before. These factors all combined to turn a small barn fire into a huge conflagration. 

 

When firefighters finally arrived at DeKoven Street, the fire had spread to neighboring buildings and was moving toward the central business district. Firefighters had hoped the South Branch of the Chicago River, along with an area that had previously burned, would act as a firebreak. However, all along the river were lumber yards, warehouses, coal yards, barges, and numerous bridges. As the fire grew, the southwest wind intensified and became superheated, causing structures to catch fire simply from the heat, as well as from flying debris. Around midnight, flaming embers blew across the river and landed on roofs and the South Side Gas Works. With the fire now across the river and headed for the heart of the city, panic set in. About this time, Mayor Roswell B. Mason sent messages to nearby towns asking for help. When the courthouse caught fire, he ordered the building be evacuated and the prisoners jailed in the basement released. At 2:30 am on the 9^th, the cupola of the courthouse collapsed, sending the great bell crashing down. Some witnesses reported hearing the sound from a mile away.

 

As more buildings succumbed to the flames, a meteorological phenomenon known as a fire whirl became a major contributing factor in the fire’s spread. As overheated air rises, it meets cooler air and begins to spin, creating a tornado-like effect. These fire whirls are likely what drove flaming debris so high and so far. Such debris was blown across the main branch of the Chicago River to a railroad car carrying kerosene. The fire had now jumped the river a second time and was raging across the city’s north side. Also a likely factor in the fire’s rapid spread was the amount of flammable waste that had been allowed to accumulate in the river from years of improper disposal methods used by local industries.

 

Despite the fire’s spread and rapid growth, firefighters continued to battle the blaze. A short time after the fire jumped the river however, a burning piece of timber lodged on the roof of the city’s waterworks. Within minutes, the interior of the building was engulfed in flames and the building was destroyed. With it, the city’s water mains went dry, and Chicago was helpless. Finally, late into the evening of October 9, it started to rain. The fire had already begun to burn itself out, having spread to the sparsely populated areas of the north side. Once the flames were extinguished, the smoldering remains were too hot for a survey of the damage to be completed for many days. 

 

Eventually, the city determined that the fire destroyed an area about four miles long and averaging ¾ mile wide, encompassing an area of more than 2,000 acres. Also destroyed were more than 73 miles of roads, 120 miles of sidewalk, 2,000 lampposts, 17,500 buildings and $222 million in property, which was about a third of the city’s valuation in 1871. Of the approximately 324,000 inhabitants of Chicago in 1871, one in three were left homeless (90,000 residents). 120 bodies were recovered, but the death toll may have been as high as 300. The county coroner speculated that an accurate count was impossible, as some victims may have drowned or been incinerated, leaving no remains.

 

St. Michael’s Church in Old Town and the Chicago Avenue Pumping Station were both gutted in the fire, but their exteriors survived, and the buildings were rebuilt using these walls. Additionally, although the inhabitable portions of St. James Cathedral were destroyed, the bell tower survived and was incorporated into the rebuilt church. The stones near the top of the tower are still blackened from the soot and smoke. Additional structures which survived the blaze include the Chicago Water Tower, St. Ignatius College Prep., Police Constable Bellinger’s cottage at 21 Lincoln Place (2121 North Hudson today), and 2323 and 2339 North Cleveland Avenue.

 

The city of Singapore, Michigan, provided much of the lumber to rebuild Chicago. As a result, the area was so heavily deforested that the land deteriorated into barren sand dunes that eventually buried the town, which had to be abandoned.

 

Since 1883, speculation has suggested that the coincidence of both major fires starting on the same day was caused by impact fragments from Biela’s Comet. This hypothesis was revived in a 1985 book, reviewed in a 1997 documentary, and investigated in a 2004 paper published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. However, scientists with expertise in the field have pointed out that there has never been a credible report of a fire being started by a meteorite. Also, Biela’s Comet was not even visible from Earth until 1872. In any event, no outside source of ignition was needed for the Peshtigo Fire. There were already numerous small fires burning in the area as part of land-clearing operations. These fires created so much smoke that the Green Island Light was kept lit continuously for weeks before the firestorm erupted. All that was needed to trigger the disaster in the Midwest was a strong wind from the cold front that had moved in.

 

Many of our modern fire codes stem from the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, but during that era, your characters would have worried about fire and been in serious danger from it. If they lived in a city or even a small town, fire was a real threat, especially if the buildings were close together. Your characters could easily have experienced such a disaster or know someone who had. Men could be part of the volunteer firefighting force in town or could be called in to help fight a large fire. Women, while not allowed to become firefighters, would have done what they could to protect their homes, such as forming bucket brigades to douse the flames. In short, fire was something everyone in the Old West thought about on a regular basis, and something that should be incorporated in your historical fiction.

 

J.E.S. Hays

www.jeshays.com

www.facebook.com/JESHaysBooks

Helping Dude Ranchers for 95 Years

 

 

     When he was a teenager, New York native Larry Larom saw Buffalo Bill’s Wild West during one of its appearances in the city between 1907 and 1909. Larom actually got to meet the great man, and rode in the Deadwood stage during one of the performances. His father was a partner in the Mark Cross leather goods company, so perhaps he had some connections to get his son an introduction. 

     Anyway, the young Larom was already an outdoorsman, and in 1910 he took his first trip West, spending the summer in a cabin on the south fork of the Shoshone River near Cody, Wyoming. He went back in 1914 with his friend Winthrop Brooks (grandson of the founder of Brooks Brothers clothing company) and in 1915 he opened a dude ranch to offer his West to his eastern friends, which he called the Valley Ranch.

     This wasn’t a new idea. Dude ranches had been around for twenty years, and two of the first and biggest ranches were Eatons’ in Wolf, Wyoming, and the OTO near Gardiner, Montana. But Larom had the enthusiasm of the newly-converted, and within a decade he was dude ranching’s biggest cheerleader.

 

     Many ranches were seat-of-the-pants operations, and their owners didn’t know much about what the others were doing. Larom, who had grown up in a household devoted to solid American business, thought this needed to change. He believed dude ranching was the future of western tourism. And there were dudes enough for everyone.

     So, ninety-five years ago, Larom and a group of dude ranchers from Montana and Wyoming got together to form an organization of their own. On September 27-28, 1926, they gathered at the Bozeman Hotel and by the time the meeting was over, the group had elected officers (with Larom as President, no surprise) and — more importantly — had chosen their name.

     Writers and journalists called visitors to their ranches dudes, and the term dude ranch had been around since about 1899. But some people sneered when they said the word, because it originally meant a man who wore fancy clothes and didn’t like to get his hands dirty. (Female dudes were dudines.)

     Should they keep on using this word? The answer was yes. To ranch owners, a dude was simply someone who came out West to enjoy the activities they offered: horseback riding, fishing, camping, hunting, swimming, evening entertainments in beautiful lodges, even helping wrangle the livestock. And their guests took pride in being called dudes.

     So, with a unanimous vote, they adopted the name the group still has today: The Dude Ranchers’ Association.

 

     The “Backed by Northern Pacific” phrase in this newspaper headline meant that railway lines were doing everything they could to keep the dude business going. Hundreds of people took the Northern Pacific, the Union Pacific, the Burlington Northern, and other lines to get to ranches near big cities, national parks, and remote wilderness areas. It was easier than ever to take a dude ranch vacation.

     But as the 1920s wore on, more people were buying cars and taking to the road on their own. And sometimes they bypassed the dude ranches. The railroads not only helped the Dude Ranchers’ Association get started, they promoted ranches with beautifully designed brochures and pamphlets.

     DRA members knew that dudes would make repeat visits, and tell their friends about what a great time they had, if they had an authentic Western experience. To help this along, the DRA debuted its own magazine in 1932, called The Dude Rancher.

     It was full of useful advice and is a lot of fun to read today. My favorite column was called House Management. It was all about the life of what some people called “the dude ranch wife,” but was really the dude ranch co-owner. From the beginning, dude ranching was a true partnership between married couples, and was also the kind of business many women ran on their own (that’s a story for another day). 

    

     For 95 years, The Dude Ranchers’ Association has helped ranches adapt to world events and cultural shifts: Depression, two world wars, changes in the way the West showed up on movie and TV screens, even how people eat.

     Happy Birthday DRA! Keep up the dude work.

Check out the Dude Ranchers’ Association website: https://duderanch.org/

Bent's Fort, What Happened?

 Post by Doris McCraw

writing as Angela Raines

Photo property of the author

This year they are celebrating the bicentennial of the Santa Fe Trail. One of the stops on the Mountain Route was Bent's Fort also known as Fort William. 

Trade officially opened up with Santa Fe around 1821. The Santa Fe Trail touched the far Southeast corner of Colorado but the Mountain Trail went further north. Although more difficult to transverse than the southern route, it had the advantage of water most of the way.

By 1833 the Bent brothers, Charles and William, along with Ceran St. Vrain, had opened what we know as Bent's Fort on the northern side of the Arkansas River. At the time the river was the dividing line between Mexico and the United States.

Photo property of the author

The fort was the only structure other than a blacksmith shop located in Kansas that one would find on the American side of the trail. Many mountain men, traders, Indians, and for a time the military all used the fort.

William Bent's first wife was Owl Woman of the Cheyenne, and he later married her sisters Yellow Woman and Island. It was from this connection that trade with the Indians grew. 

In addition to the Bent's, the list of those who spent time within the walls of the fort reads like a who's who of the opening of the west. George Ruxton, John Smith, William Guerrier, Francis Parkman, Susan Magoffin, Francis Preston Blair Jr., Lieutenant James Aber, along with Kit Carson and Jim Beckworth.

The trade was not just with the locals, it was a worldwide concern trading goods from around the world. The languages spoken were English, Spanish, French along with the native languages.

Photo property of the author

The Fort was extremely profitable through 1849. It was that year that a cholera epidemic spread across the plains wiping out a substantial number of people. (The epidemic years were 1846-1860.) It was in 1849 that the Fort burnt down. William Bent moved to a spot further about forty miles downriver and built Bent's New Fort.

Did William burn the fort to keep it from being used as a military fort? Perhaps he fired it because of the cholera epidemic that had taken the lives of some of his family. Maybe there was a reason we will never know. Regardless, the fort was a lifeline for so many in the early days of trade along the Santa Fe Trail.  

Photo property of the author

As Susan Magoffin says in her diary." It fills my idea of an ancient castle. It is built of adobes, unburnt brick, and Mexican style so far. The walls are very high and very thick with rounded corners." This reconstructed fort is a trip back to the early days of the country and is rich in history to be excavated. Perhaps one day we'll know what really happened when the fort was destroyed.

Photo property of the author

Doris Gardner-McCraw -

Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History

Angela Raines - author: Telling Stories Where Love & History Meet

Books: Angela Raines Books

Website: Angela Raines - author

Angela Raines FaceBook: Click Here

Post (c) Doris McCraw All Rights Reserved.

My 12 Favorite Western Movies - Part One

Admittedly, any list of anyone’s favorite of anything is going to be subjective and this list is no exception. There will be people who will be convinced that I have lost my mind to include a particular movie on this list, and others who are just as convinced of my mental defects because I didn’t include a particular movie. So, right out of the gate, I’m expecting disagreement, controversy, name-calling, and maybe even some shootouts in the street at high noon.

I have included one film which is not technically a Western. Westerns are generally considered as taking place during the last half of the 19^th century. This film is loosely based on an incident in the life of someone that took place in 1823. The movie, however, contains elements and themes that are common stock in the Western genre of film and literature. I’ve also included several titles that were each aired as a mini-series, not as individual films, but I saw no reason to discriminate based on length.

So, here you have it. My list of the twelve Western movies that I like the best. I’ve listed them in order from my least favorite to my most favorite. If you have a favorite that you think should be in everyone’s top twelve, but didn’t make the cut in my list, make your case for it in the comments below.

This post will cover the bottom six movies. My post for the month of October will cover the top six on my list.

 

#12 – The Searchers

Released in 1956, directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Ward Bond, Natalie Wood, and Vera Miles. I struggled with where to include this film in the twelve. It could have easily been much closer to the top of the list. This is arguably both John Ford’s best picture and John Wayne’s best performance. Based on the 1954 book of the same name by Alan Le May, the story is based on the true-life account of nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker who was abducted from her home on the Texas frontier in 1836 by Comanche Indians.

John Wayne plays anti-hero Ethan Edwards, a bitter Civil War veteran, who returns home to Texas after the war. When his brother’s family is killed or abducted by the Comanche, Ethan sets out on a journey to find the surviving family members and bring them home.

This film was nominated for six awards and won three, including a Golden Globe in 1958.

 

#11 – Centennial

A twelve-part mini-series that aired between October 1, 1978, and February 4, 1979. Based on the 1974 epic novel by James A. Michener, the movie featured a cast of dozens of Hollywood’s biggest stars including Robert Conrad, Barbara Carrera, Richard Chamberlain, Brian Keith, Andy Griffith, Lynn Redgrave, Raymond Burr, and on and on…

The series tells the story of the founding of the American West by looking at the fictional town of Centennial, Colorado, from its settlement in the late 18^th century to the present. At the time it was made, it was the longest, the most expensive, and the most complicated film project of its time. It ran for a total of 26 hours, cost 25 million dollars, had a cast of over 100 speaking parts, four directors, five producers, and several hundred extras.

Several of the episodes were nominated for various awards, including two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes.

  

#10 – Open Range

Released in 2003, Produced and directed by Kevin Costner, starring Kevin Costner, Robert Duvall, Annette Benning, and Michael Jeter (who passed away before the movie was released).

Open Range is an old-fashioned Western with cowboys, cattle drives, a ruthless land baron, gunfights in the street, and a love interest for Costner’s character. The plot is simple, the characters are well developed and genuine, and the chemistry between Costner and Duvall is apparent.

The movie is based on the 1990 book, The Open Range Men, by Lauran Paine. Paine was a prolific writer who wrote under numerous pen names, publishing over 1,000 books in different genres. Only two of his books were ever made into movies and both of them were Westerns.

Costner and Duvall play two cattlemen driving a herd across the open range. They stop for supplies in a small Montana town where they discover the local land baron has laid claim to all of the open rangeland and is determined to steal the herd and kill the cattlemen. Costner’s character, Charley Waite is tortured by his past as a Confederate sharpshooter and all of the killings that he had done. He and Boss Spearman (Duvall) are not the kinds to stand by and watch their men and cattle be killed and taken from them.

Although there are some authenticity issues with the film (the magic six-shooter that never has to be reloaded), the inevitable shootout with the bad guys at the end is probably the best in any Western film. Open Range would have made it into my top twelve for the final shootout alone—it’s that good.

 

#9 – How the West was Won

How the West was Won is the story of three generations of the Rawlings/Prescott family as they make their way from New York to California between the years 1839 and 1889. This story of westward expansion includes Indians, river pirates, the civil war, the building of the railroads, outlaws, and lawmen. The cast of stars that were assembled for this film is phenomenal and includes James Stewart, Henry Fonda, John Wayne, Walter Brennan, Gregory Peck, and Debbie Reynolds, to name just a few. The film is also narrated by Spencer Tracy.

The film was directed by three veteran directors, John Ford, Henry Hathaway, and George Marshall. Oddly enough, it was first released in London, in the UK, in November of 1962, and then released in the US in February of 1963. Produced at a budget of fewer than 15 million dollars. It grossed over 50 million at the box office, making it a huge success for MGM, and one of the studio’s last great “epic” films.

The music for the film was composed and conducted by Alfred Newman. The score was nominated for an Academy Award. It lost out but was later selected to fill the #25 spot in the American Film Institute’s “100 Years of Film Scores” list.

How the West Was Won was the winner of ten different awards, including three of the eight Academy Awards that it was nominated for.

 

#8 – Into the West

Into the West is a 2005 mini-series composed of six two-hour episodes. It chronicles the westward expansion of the United States, beginning in the early 1820s. It’s told through the eyes of two different families, one white, one native, as the family’s fates become intertwined.

Jacob Wheeler (Matthew Settle) leaves his parent’s home in Virginia and heads west to seek adventure. He is taken under the wing of the legendary mountain man, Jedediah Smith, who teaches him how to survive in the wilderness. Loved by the Buffalo (George Leach) is a Lakota holy man, who’s calling it is to try to understand a prophesy that has his people being wiped out by the encroaching white settlers. Jacob marries Loved by the Buffalo’s sister, Thunder Heart Woman, thus tying the destiny of both families together throughout the rest of the story.

Its scope covers six generations of the two families and depicts both fictionalized and historical events and people.

Into the West has an impressive cast, with over 250 speaking parts. Each of the six episodes had a different director, and the project had eight different producers – most noticeably were Steven Spielberg and Kirk Ellis, who was also one of the writers for the mini-series.

Into the West received 16 Emmy nominations in 2006, picking up two wins. It was also nominated for an award by the Screen Acts Guild.

 

#7 – The Cowboys

The Cowboys, released in 1972, directed by Mark Rydell, is based on the book by the same name, published in January of 1971 and written by William Dale Jennings, who also wrote “The Ronin.”

This is one of John Wayne’s later films, and also stars Roscoe Lee Browne, Bruce Dern, Colleen Dewhurst, and a handful of young cowboys, notably Robert Carradine and A. Martinez.

The Duke plays an aging cattleman by the name of Will Anderson, who needs to drive a herd of cattle from Butte, Montana to Belle Fourche, South Dakota - four hundred miles away. However, just before the drive begins, his cattle hands get the gold bug and run off to the Montana gold fields leaving him stranded and desperate for help. With no other able-bodied men available to help him move his cattle, he reluctantly enlists the aid of eleven school boys, ages nine to thirteen.

Roscoe Lee Brown does an outstanding job of portraying Jebediah Nightlinger, the camp cook. Probably the best performance by any of the cast comes from Bruce Dern as Asa “Long Hair” Watts, an ex-con who tried signing on as a drover but was turned away by Will Anderson who caught him in a lie. Watts and his gang follow the herd seeking an opportunity to steal it away from the inexperienced cowboys, but the young boys do a lot of growing up throughout the cattle drive, and taking the herd from them is not as easy as Watts and his gang thinks it will be.

The Cowboys was the recipient, in 1972, of the Bronze Wrangler Award (best theatrical motion picture of the year) from the Western Heritage Awards.

(Next month, the top six on my 12 Favorite Western Movies list.)

Mike is an award-winning Western author currently living in a 600 square foot cabin in the mountains of Western Montana. He has been married to his redheaded sweetheart, Tami, since 1989. He is a Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award Finalist three years in a row and his short stories have been published in numerous anthologies and are available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other online retailers as well as brick and mortar bookstores. His first Western novel, The Sons of Philo Gaines, was released in November of 2020. It is available everywhere books are sold. Mike is a member of Western Writers of America and Western Fictioneers. You can find him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MichaelRRittAuthor, or at his website https://michaelrritt.com.

Larry D. Sweazy - A Pantser who Plots

This next interview is with Larry D. Sweazy, an award-winning author of Westerns, Mysteries, and more.  I love that he is a Pantser who also does some plotting. These interviews give the reader and writer an insight into the process of various writers and the work that goes into telling a story on the page. Read on, there is so much to learn.

Author Larry D. Sweazy

1. When did you realize you wanted to be a writer? 

I was an early reader, but I really fell in love with stories via the television. We had a black-and-white nineteen-inch Motorola with rabbit ears (with aluminum foil on the tips) that brought the outside world into our one-bedroom apartment. It was the 1960s, so there were a lot of Westerns on TV at the time, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and my mom’s favorite, The Big Valley. I liked Batman, but I didn’t fall for Star Trek or cops shows like The Mod Squad and Mannix until I was older. All of those shows were an escape, and I found the same kind of escape in books. It wasn’t until eighth grade when a poem that I’d written to a girl got intercepted by a teacher that I began thinking I might be able to write. He held me after English Lit class, told me the poem was pretty good, gave me a few books to read, and suggested that I pay attention in class. I did. It was the first good review I had. “You’re pretty good at this,” can go a long way to a small-town kid with no other visible talents.  I continued to write poetry in high school, and then after I left home, I pretty much decided that writing was what I wanted to do with my life. At that point, in my early twenties, everything I did, read, and invested in, revolved around becoming a published writer. 

Amazon

2. Did you chose the genre you write in or did it choose you?

Interesting question. I didn’t start out writing westerns, or mysteries for that matter. I started writing short stories, some speculative fiction, some horror in the Stephen King vein. Carrie came out while I was in high school, and I was an instant King fan. I still admire his work and his dedication to the craft and the writing life. I moved on to writing novels after a few years, and the third unpublished novel I wrote was a modern-day police procedural. There was a mystery conference not far from where I lived, and I attended out of curiosity, hoping to learn more about the genre. That conference really changed the direction I was heading. Once writers were real and in-person, the writing dream seemed more possible than it ever had. I tried writing mysteries for several years after that with no luck. I came close a couple of times, but I just couldn’t find a way to get published. Fate intervened a few years later. Or being in the right time, right place. Whatever you want to call it. A little luck brought an invitation to me to write a short story for a Marty Greenberg/Ed Gorman anthology. Ed asked me to write a modern-day Texas Ranger mystery short story and I did. It came out in a western anthology, with my story being the only modern story in the collection. I thought I was writing a mystery. That story, my first professionally published short story, went on to win the WWA Spur Award for short fiction. I was shocked. I went to the conference, met some amazing writers like Elmer Kelton, Don Coldsmith, and Loren Estleman, and a new world was introduced to me. But, of course, it wasn’t a new world. I had loved all of those western TV shows and movies as a kid. My first published novel (but the seventh one I’d written) was The Rattlesnake Season, the first book in the (seven-book, so far) Josiah Wolfe series. I would say westerns chose me, but maybe I was destined to write westerns from the beginning.  

3. Do you write in other genres? 

So far, I have published eight westerns and eight mysteries. But it depends on how you look at each novel. Most of my novels have elements of both genres in them, western and mystery, so the lines become blurred as far as I’m concerned. Genre gets defined by other people, librarians, publishers, booksellers, etc. And I don’t mind working in the confines of genre—just like I’m sure John McEnroe didn’t mind playing tennis inside the tennis court. It’s what a writer brings to the table that counts. What I love more than anything is story. And most of my stories involve characters on their own, facing the elements of nature, the harshness of life, loss, the cruelty of humans, all the while doing their best to survive, and being productive people making a contribution to the greater good. I like stories about reinvention and survival. Westerns are a great place for that kind of tale. But so is science fiction, horror, and every other genre. At this point, I hope to continue to grow and get better as a writer, and I think writing in other genres helps to keep me fresh, but I also think there’s a wide palette to work off of when it comes to writing westerns. I have a lot more stories to tell. 

Amazon

4. Are you a plotter or a pantser?

I’m a pantser who plots two or three chapters ahead. I usually work off a synopsis of the story while giving myself permission to stop in and take in the view or visit someplace that looks interesting that I didn’t know existed when I started out. I think there has to be room for spontaneity, but I also like to know where I’m going (most of the time) when I pull out of the garage to take a trip or sit down to write a story. E. L. Doctorow said, “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” I think that pretty much covers how I write.

 

5. Is there a writing routine you follow or do you write when the muse strikes?

I grew up in a factory town and come from a blue-collar background. Punch in, punch out, show up every day or you don’t get paid. Slack off and you lose your job. I show up everyday. That’s pretty much my routine. I write a thousand words a day, five days a week, and most times seven days a week when I’m writing a first draft. If I waited for the muse to strike, I’d never hit a deadline. I would get distracted by something else. Oh, look a squirrel! I’m curious about everything. I have to be disciplined and regimented in most all of the aspects of my life, or I would just sit and watch the birds at the birdfeeder all day (or the squirrels) and get nothing done.

Amazon

6. Where did you get the idea for your latest release and tell a bit about the story?

I really wanted to explore a western hero who is a hero until he screws up. Then what is he? Lost Mountain Pass is the first book in my new series from Kensington featuring Trusty Dawson, a Deputy U.S. Marshal in 1888 Indian Territory. Trusty makes a fatal mistake while escorting a federal judge home from a trial and spends the rest of the book trying to redeem himself and regain the meaning of his name. I wanted to defy expectations a little bit. Trusty is not the usual western hero. I know that’s a risk, but I’m hoping readers will enjoy the ride, all the while experiencing the expected trappings of what a western is supposed to be and what a western can be. 

Pre-order from Amazon

7.  What advice would you give to those who dream of writing, or what advice would you give your younger self?

Don’t be desperate to get published. If you’re going to be desperate about something, be desperate about becoming a good writer. Be willing to serve an apprenticeship. No one is a master craftsman out of the gate. Don’t publish until you’re ready. Just because you can publish your work doesn’t mean you should. You won’t avoid rejection. If you self-publish and have no sales, that’s rejection. If you send your work out too soon to an agent or publisher and get rejected, that’s part of the journey for us all. Rejection is part of the deal. I still get rejected. I have a project out on submission right now that’s been rejected thirty-four times. Writing doesn’t get any easier. It’s a long-haul proposition. But if you stick with it, don’t let anyone or anything discourage you, then maybe luck will find you sitting at your desk. Maybe luck will ask you to write a story for them. You never know where that bit of luck will take you. But you have to be ready. And the only way to be ready is to write. Read and write. That’s the secret. Read and write as much as possible, and don’t give up, no matter what.  

I hope you enjoyed this interview and perhaps learned even more about this career we call writer/author. 

Amazon Author Page

http://www.larrydsweazy.com/

Follow on Twitter: @larrydsweazy 

http://www.facebook.com/larrysweazyauthor

Post (c) by Doris McCraw All Rights Reserved

Dr J J CHISOLM'S TALISMAN - THE SYRINGE

THE DOCTOR'S BAG

the blog about the medicine and surgery of yesteryear

Keith Souter aka Clay More

Six months ago I wrote a post about the history of the hypodermic syringe. I said it then and I say it again now, it is one of the most important developments in medicine. It eventually also greatly facilitated the process of vaccination. Since I have been vaccinating over those six months I have used and discarded  at least several hundred syringes, because of course nowadays each syringe is used only once. 

In the early days a single hypodermic syringe was a prized possession that would be used multiple times.

A Short recap

Syringes had been used in medicine for centuries, but for introducing fluid into bodily orifices, or to suck out fluids or pus. Some attempts to give drugs by injecting them into the body were made in the early seventeenth century, but they were not successful and fatalities did occur. In those days it would be highly likely that infections would have been directly introduced to the tissues.

The first necessity was to produce a hollow needle. This was done by Dr Francis Rynd (1801-1861) an Irish surgeon in 1843. He successfully develop a technique with a hollow needle for injecting opiates to treat neuralgia.

Dr Thomas Wood (1817-1884) a Scottish physician, who i am proud to say was born in my hometown of Cupar in Scotland invented the first hypodermic syringe in 1853. Apparently he tried to copy the action of a bee sting, so he used a hollow needle that could be attached to a metal syringe.  He used it to inject morphine and other opiates in the treatment of neuralgia, which was at that time  an umbrella label for all manner of painful conditions.

 Dr Thomas Wood (1817-1884)

The Civil War -  missed opportunity to help so many

During the Civil War most surgeons simply dusted morphine into wounds or gave opium pills. Dr John Billings (1838-1913), a Lieutenant Colonel in the Union Army was the first doctor to use a hypodermic syringe in the field. Despite his advocacy of it, however, probably less than a dozen were used during the war in the Union Army. Many thousands of men could have benefitted from its use.

 Dr John Billings (1838-1913)

Dr Billings would go on to become one of the most prominent physicians and librarians in American medicine. Indeed, after the war he developed Index Medicus a bibliographic index of medical articles from journals all over the world. It ran from 1879 until 2004. As a young medical student and then as a hospital doctor I used it extensively to research papers in medical libraries. Medical historians have called it 'America's greatest contribution to medical knowledge.' I think few doctors of my and earlier generation s would disagree with that. 

  A mid-19th century hypodermic syringe

Dr Julian John Chisolm (1830-1903)

I have written several posts about Dr Billing's counterpart during the Civil War.  Julian John Chisolm, often referred to as John Julian Chisolm, or as J.J. Chisolm was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1830. He obtained his MD medical degree from the Medical College of South Carolina in 1850, then travelled to Europe to study medicine and surgery in Paris and London.

Dr Julian John Chisolm (1830-1903)

He returned to Charleston in 1860 and took up the post of Professor of Surgery at the Medical College, from whence he had graduated a decade previously. He kept the position throughout the War and in 1861 published the first edition of his textbook A Manual of Military Surgery for the use of Surgeons in the Confederate States Army.

Dr Chisolm's 'talisman'

This book is a rich source of information about medical and surgical treatment during the Civil War. In it, Dr Chisolm also advocates the use of the syringe and the injection of morphine. 

Hes says:   " by the use of this simple process, a new and extensive field for doing good is open to the humane military surgeon, and he who is the fortunate possessor of this talisman (a Wood's endermic syringe - see above) will receive daily the thanks and blessings of his suffering patients.'

And he gives several cases as examples, of which this is one.

Captain M was accidentally shot in the neck with a Colt's pocket revolver. His head being turned, the ball entered the skin over the larynx, coursed downward and backward through the posterior triangle of the neck, and was found under the skin of the shoulder over the spine of the scapula, and was removed. 

Posterior triangle of the neck

Considerable swelling and extravasation followed, which, diffusing itself, discoloured that side of the neck. Some branches of the brachial plexus of nerves (the nerve supply to the upper limb) must have been injured by the ball, as the patient was seized with violent  pains shooting down the arm towards the fingers, and which, although never altogether absent, would increase to torture as evening advanced. Toward morning they would remit and allow sleep, after a restless and painful night. Gum opium and morphine in large doses, gave him no relief. the arm was so sensitive that he would not permit its being handled. One fourth of a grain of morphine, in three or four drops of water, was injected under the skin of the shoulder; in five minutes all pain had left him, and his arm could be examined rudely without the slightest suffering. 

Although other cases of gunshot woulds could be detailed in which the endermic use of morphine gave immediate and entire relief from pain, the above recital will suffice as proof of its decided usefulness. 

*****

Favorite Movies and TV Featuring Railroads by Scott D. Parker

When you think of what makes a western a western, railroads and trains naturally make it onto the Top 10 list. They may not be in the Top 5, but they certainly play a significant role. I know they did when it came time for me to write my own western stories, especially with the creation of Calvin Carter, Railroad Detective. You see? It's right there in his title.

David Cranmer (aka Edward A. Grainger) and I emerged on the scene more or less at the same time, now over a decade ago. We each ended up creating a western hero. He created Cash Laramie, the Outlaw Marshal, who, along with his partner, Gideon Miles, deal with outlaws and desperadoes wherever they rear their ugly heads. For me, I spawned Calvin Carter, a former actor who, in the course of tracking down the man who killed Carter's father, learned he had a knack for detecting. He often dons disguises and uses his acting abilities to bring a certain amount of flair to the role of his lifetime.

A while back, David suggested we team up our heroes and, after a decade of stops and starts, the first pairing of Cash and Carter will be published this fall. In Cash Laramie and the Sundown Express, owlhoots have hijacked the inaugural run of the fastest train in the west, and it's up to Cash and Miles to retake the train. Unbeknownst to them, Carter is on board, in disguise, as he, too, attempts to thwart the hijackers while saving the passengers, including the renowned actress Lillie Langtry.

David thought it a fun idea if I made a list of favorite trains in movies and TV. I agreed, but then quickly realized something. Not only did my list almost instantly get filled with non-western ideas, but some of the more well known westerns to feature trains were movies or TV shows with which I am not familiar. Thus, you won't find Hell on Wheels on this list because I simply haven't watched it. And while I have watched both versions of 3:10 to Yuma, I can't speak with any authority because I can't remember a lot of the plot. 

So, with these caveats in mind, here's my list.

The Great Train Robbery (1978)

If I'm being honest, this might be the first heist film I ever saw. From the opening of Sean Connery's voiceover explaining how the gold is transported and secured, you sit on the edge of your seat wondering if he and his team will pull off the robbery from a moving train. 

Many of the scenes I first saw in my youth remained with me, but two always rose to the top. The ending, when Connery's Pierce, escapes on the police carriage as he was destined for jail, smiling all the way, his arms extended in a sort of bow, really stuck with me. Only now that I think of it do I think a part of Carter's DNA must have emerged from Connery's performance.

The other scene that has always stuck with me is Donald Sutherland's Agar as he runs into the train office and makes wax impressions of the keys, all within 75 seconds. I was enthralled by that kind of thinking and ingenuity. I think this film might've set the stage for my continued enjoyment of heist films, and it undoubtedly enamored me with the charming con man.

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

I only saw this film for the first time this century as it is my wife's favorite western. And really, what more is there to say about this Sergio Leone epic that hasn't already been said? Ennio Morricone's score is brilliant, giving the film not only its epic feel but saying, through music, how the modern world is encroaching on the frontier in the form of the railroad.

I appreciate how the locomotive and the building of the railroad serve as the central character in this film, a character that is, in effect, the march of time and we people must adjust to it or get out of the way. And, unlike many westerns that feature railroads, it was a dirty, hot, and mind-numbingly brutal job, but a job that needed to be done, no matter the cost. Of all of Leone's films, this one remains a favorite.

From Russia With Love

I love James Bond and nearly all of his films, but as I've gotten older, I've become more interested in the movies with smaller stakes. This film, the second in the franchise, has a pretty spectacular train sequence that the historian in me loves. 

After Bond and Tatiana Romanova have escaped with the Lektor cryptograph machine, they flee on one of the most famous trains: the Orient Express. In these scenes in the middle of the film, you get to see what it was like to travel in style in what is probably the last major decade where train travel was considered a viable economic means of transportation before planes surpassed it.

Key to my enjoyment of the train sequence is the fight between Bond and Red Grant (Robert Shaw). It is the close confines of a train compartment that give the fight its brutal nature. No gadgets, just fists and brawn and brains. A different Bond (Roger Moore) would again fight in a train (Moonraker), but this Sean Connery version--look at that; two Connery films--is my favorite.

The Wild Wild West

No discussion of westerns and railroads would be complete without a mention of The Wanderer, the train and tricked out rail car of James West and Artemus Gordon. Again, TWWW was my first, favorite western TV show. Being a Star Wars kid, I loved the gadgets, the steampunk-before-steampunk-was-a-thing vibe, and West and Gordon's "home." No matter how many time owlhoots or Dr. Miguelito Loveless boarded the train, you knew there was something the Secret Service agents could do to get themselves out of any predicament. 

Not only the gadgets, but I also appreciated how there was science equipment for Gordon to do his investigations and his disguises. 

Like the bridge of Star Trek's Enterprise, so many episodes either began or ended on board The Wanderer that it became a crucial component of a wonderfully entertaining TV show.

Back to the Future: Part III

When David asked me the question about railroads in the old west, this is the first one that came to mind. 

I consider the first film to be one of those perfect films not only as a time capsule of its time, but the storytelling mechanics within the movie itself. The second one gave us three looks: their future (2015, now our past), an alternate 1985, and a trippy return to the events of the 1955-part of the first film. 

But I have a special love for Part III. Set almost entirely in the old west, director Robert Zemeckis basically made a western that held true to all the aspects we have come to love about westerns, but with a twist. Doc Brown not only makes a steam-powered ice machine but he also gets a delightful love story.

Act III's central action sequence is on a train, one they have to get up to 88 MPH as it pushes the futuristic Delorean down the tracks and back to the future. Plus we get a spectacular crash as the locomotive in 1888 falls off the incomplete bridge and crashes into Eastwood Ravine.

As fun as that is, however, it's in the movie's closing moments when we get a truly over-the-top train. Doc Brown, his wife, and two boys (Jules and Verne) return to 1985 to say good-bye to Marty McFly in a *flying train*. 

Well, those are my favorite trains in movies and TV. What about yours?

Scott Dennis Parker lives, works, writes, and listens to music way too loud in his native Houston, Texas, with his wife and son. He is the Saturday columnist at DoSomeDamage.com and has a long-running blog at ScottDParker.blogspot.com. Learn about his other books at ScottDennisParker.com.