Frontier Tales

Western stories are making a comeback, or so some experts say, but tales of the hardships our pioneers confronted have long been a rewarding and intriguing part of American literature. From the Leather Stocking Tales by James Fennimore Cooper through the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and on to the great westerns such as Hondo and The Shadow Riders by Louis L’Amour, writers continue to explore the rich tradition of great American stories. But even with this increased popularity … [Read more...]

Payback at Murderer’s Bar

Sunshine suddenly flooded through the open door of the cabin. I picked up the crutch my eldest, Enos, had fashioned from an alder branch and limped outside. Thick, dark clouds still roiled above the river as far as I could see, but off to the west a small gap between heaven and earth had given the setting sun a last brief opportunity to remind us of the glory of it’s existence. It was a welcome sign. Rain had fallen in a steady downpour since yesterday morning, starting just after we’d … [Read more...]

Firebaugh’s Ferry

It wasn’t much of a town. The one ramshackle wooden building looked so poorly made that someone must’ve piled the barrels of beans, barley and wheat along the sides just to keep the place from blowing down in a good-sized wind. Next door a large round tent with ‘saloon’ scrawled in crude red letters over its open flap beckoned, and the rest of the posse ducked inside, their prisoner in tow. But I headed across the road to where wood smoke from a low chimney attached to a sod-roofed adobe carried … [Read more...]