Paul Colt's Blog, page 54

Research Trip

One of the enjoyable things about writing historical fiction is research. Libraries, history books, and prowling online only take you so far. Sooner or later you climb into a car or onto a plane and off you go on a research trip! This week we’re off to Lawrence Kansas. Why you ask? Because Lawrence was epicenter to the Kansas Missouri boarder conflict leading up to the Civil War. If you follow these posts, you’re probably not surprised as we’ve recently looked at the role selecting a route of the transcontinental railroad played in those events. I thought it might be fun to do a little travel-blogging on a research trip to give you a feel for what goes into one.

My wife thinks I should write about far-away places with warm sounding names. I don’t know how to make a Caribbean western work. So we find our way to places like Lawrence and Lincoln County New Mexico, where we discover interesting things like bullet holes in jail house walls and the remains of old buildings where bits of history were made. Whenever possible we try to do the landscaping in places like New Mexico or the Paha Sapa (Black Hills) on horseback.

We do most of these trips by car. We take our time. If it takes two or three days to get someplace, so be it. We took two days to get to Lawrence. We are staying at the historic Eldridge House, in its third incarnation as a grand old hotel. This one dates to 1925. It is built on the site and in the essential architecture of its two predecessors, both of which were burned to the ground by the events of the story I’m working on.

The first order of business today is a stop at the Visitor’s Center. I had some idea of the places I wanted to see in the area; but visitor centers are wonderful places. They are filled with useful information and staffed by people knowledgeable of the area. In this case we were rewarded with an historian, well versed in the events of my story. He clarified an important detail I needed with respect to the arrival of the railroad in Lawrence. We gathered all the free information we needed to plan the rest of our stay.

Next stop is the territorial capital of Kansas with its constitutional courthouse in Lecompton. There we walked floorboards trod by the principals in that historic confrontation between pro-slavery and free-state adversaries. The triumph in this visit is accurately establishing the presence of a Native American tribe in the area at the time of the story. Native American tribes moved (or were moved) so often as to make it difficult to establish who was where when. Accurate information of that sort is important to get the story right.

Our last stop on day one is the Watkins Museum of History where we gather more information and photographs we can use to enliven these pages and eventually use promoting the book. We had the good fortune to meet the museum curator who kindly offered the use of their archives should I need it. Whew! Enough for one day.

Next week:
Research Trip-Day Two

https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt

Ride easy,
Paul

Many Thanks

Grateful and humbled don’t say enough. They’re a start. I didn’t plan to do this post this week, but when this came up it just couldn’t wait. We’ll get back to business as usual next week.

It’s Saturday morning. Part of my weekly routine is to check my author page at Amazon. Amazon posts sales figures as of midnight Pacific on Fridays. The numbers are a week delayed; but they are the best sales figures available if you’re not a publisher. This Saturday I did something I haven’t done for a while. I read the reviews so many of you have given my work. Grateful and humbled don’t say enough.

I learned some things from your comments; or maybe I should say your comments confirmed some things my gut told me back in the day when I started writing. History is fascinating when it is presented in story form. Most of us didn’t get that in school. History class consisted of people, events and dates memorized for test purposes. Bring those people and events to life in story form and learning becomes entertaining. That is especially true when some aspect of an otherwise familiar character or event is unknown to the reader. I call those gems, unexpected history. I try to find overlooked ‘I had no idea’ insights tucked away in the margins of history. They make for great stories.

Your reviews told me historical fiction and western readers like a fast paced story. Sometimes the reviews I get from other western writers struggle with the way I pace my books. I run two or three plot-lines in parallel with relatively short scenes moving back and forth between them. That technique makes for a fast paced story. It may not be the way traditional westerns are written, but you told me over and over, you like that style. I may not win many awards by coloring outside the lines in the genre, but I’ll do my best to keep turning out page turners.

You told me you like visual scenes, believable characters and solid research. Those are things I’ve tried to deliver from the beginning. We can always learn and get better, but you told me we’re shooting at the right targets.

So I’m a grateful guy this Saturday morning. Humbled too that so many of you enjoy my work and took time to tell others about it. For my part I’ll keep trying to bring you entertaining stories that are worth your time. Whether the story is unexpected history or just a fun read, the ingredients are the same. Many thanks for your feedback.

https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt

Ride easy,
Paul

Hero Horse Answers

Congratulations to all who played last week! You know your hero’s horses and a few horses I didn’t know were heroes. Two out of nearly seventeen thousand aced the final exam. Hope all of you had fun with Hero Horse Trivia. Let’s see how you did. Were you old enough to remember the warm up questions?

The Lone Ranger rode Silver

Roy Rogers rode Trigger.

Dale Evans rode Buttermilk. (Nellybelle was a Jeep driven by Roy’s sidekick, Pat Buttram)

Gene Autry rode Champion.

Bonus Trivia: Champion was a sorrel.

Did you get these without peeking? If you did you know some Hero Horse Trivia.

Hoppalong Cassidy rode Topper.

Tonto rode Scout.

Zoro rode Tornado.

Cisco Kid rode Diablo

Bonus Trivia: Diablo was an Overo paint, black with white markings.

If you got this next group, you are a player.

Pancho rode Loco.

Robert E. Lee rode Traveler.

Wm S. Hart rode Fritz.

Tom Mix rode Tony.

Comanche survived Custer’s Last Stand. How’s that for irony?

Now did you break the record and ace the final exam?

The Lone Ranger’s nephew rode a white stallion sired by Silver named Victor.

Bonus Trivia: The Lone Ranger claimed young Dan Reed as his nephew.

I suppose I’ll have to retire the final exam question after sharing it with an audience this size. Oh well, it’s been fun for more years than I care to admit. Hope you had fun horsing around with trivia.

https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt

Ride easy,
Paul
Photo-art by Jim Hatzell
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fiddler...

Horse Hero Trivia

Let’s have some fun with trivia. Like many of you, growing up my heroes rode horses. One of my favorite trivia categories reminisces about the horses those heroes rode. The horses were heroes in their own right. They were smart, beautiful horses. Each added to the character of the hero who rode them. Do you remember them? I’m sure you remember some of them. I bet you’ll remember the rest too. It may take a little prompting in some cases, but that’s what makes trivia fun.

Let’s throw some questions out there this week and see how many you can answer. You probably have some friends who might enjoy this game. Pass it along to them to see if any of them can beat you. You’ll all be able to tune in next week for the answers. Here are few easy ones to warm-up on. Easy that is if you’re old enough to remember . . .

The Lone Ranger rode?

Roy Rogers rode?

Dale Evans rode? (Hint: It’s not Nellybelle)

Gene Autry rode?

Bonus Trivia: What were the distinctive color markings of Gene’s Horse?

There, that was easy. You’re off to a great start. No peeking now- Google is off limits.

Hoppalong Cassidy rode?

Tonto rode?

Zoro rode?

Cisco Kid rode?

Bonus Trivia: What were the distinctive markings of Cisco’s horse called? Hint: a rare paint.

Having fun yet? Ready to really test a brain cell or two?

Cisco’s sidekick Pancho rode?

Robert E. Lee rode?

Wm S. Hart rode?

Tom Mix rode?

Survived Custer’s Last Stand?

And now the Hero Horse Trivia Final Exam. This one is Final because in all the years I’ve posed this bit of horse trivia- I’ve never gotten a correct answer:

What was the Lone Ranger’s nephew’s horse’s name?

Bonus Trivia: What was the Lone Ranger’s nephew’s name?

Stop-by next week to see how you did. Till then “Hi-ho . . .”

https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt

Ride easy,
Paul

The Lessons of History

Over the last few weeks we discovered the role the transcontinental rail route played in the run-up to the civil war. My historical recollection of the Kansas Missouri border conflict is framed around John Brown and the abolition issue. That’s what most of us were taught in school. I don’t remember the Pacific rail route playing a part in the dispute. Serious historians undoubtedly made the connection, but for most of us it appears our history classes overlooked that particular lesson. Imagine that. Part of our history got lost on the way to our classrooms. What happened? I don’t know. For whatever reason the route selection controversy was overlooked or understated in the classes most of us took. Were we damaged by the omission? Not much. Nevertheless it happened for a great many of us. There’s a history lesson there in more ways than one.

George Santayana authored the observation: Those who ignore the lessons of history are destined to repeat them. I hear echoes of his warning in today’s controversy over federal education standards known as Common Core. Taken at face value, education standards seem perfectly reasonable; and they may be, so long as we all agree on what those standards should be. Therein lies the devil in the details. As you may recall from the ‘Popular Sovereignty’ provision of Senator Douglas’ Kansas Nebraska Act, ‘Perfectly reasonable’ public policy in the wrong hands can result in mischief and abuse.

Local control over curriculum is at the root of the Common Core controversy. Curriculum embraces math, science, language, social studies and a whole host of subject matter over which I have no credentials. Some may argue I have no credential in any of this discussion; but when it comes to history, I’ve studied enough to have earned an opinion. My opinion on this issue is a concern.

We don’t teach much history in school anymore. The history that is taught is selective and quite often slanted toward a preferred belief system. Put that in the wrong hands and we risk losing our heritage and values to some imposter we didn’t choose.

George Orwell famously said “Who controls the past controls the future.” In significant measure our future depends on learning the lessons of history. We entrust our schools to pass our heritage and culture on to our kids; and through them to future generations. We can ill-afford to risk our heritage in the name of ‘Perfectly reasonable’ foolishness determined by some federal edu-crat. If we do, we risk losing culture and our country.

https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt

Ride easy,
Paul

Perfectly Reasonable Foolishness

As eastern railroads built west, they were drawn toward commercial interests in Chicago and Mississippi River commerce centered in St. Louis. By provisions of the Missouri Compromise a central route to the Pacific favored formation of free-states, thereby putting an end to the balance of power in the Senate. With antislavery sentiment growing in the north, the south saw the central route as an existential threat to its economic way of life. Congress deadlocked. No agreement could be reached on a rail route to the Pacific.

In 1854 Senator Stephen A. Douglas, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act, proposing creation of two western territories, along with repeal of the Missouri Compromise. This gave Missourians and their southern sympathizers the expectation of a return to the balance of power formula for territorial expansion- one state slave, another free. Northern interests had no such intent. A bitter Congressional floor fight ensued.

The deadlock was broken by adding a ‘Popular Sovereignty’ provision to the Kansas Nebraska Act, which allowed inhabitants of the territories to determine the slavery issue. This well intended bit of ‘Perfectly reasonable’ foolishness enabled the bill to pass with the support of southern interests. President Pierce signed it into law. Foolish you say, how could allowing the electorate to determine a local issue be foolish?

When the slavery issue reached the ballot in Kansas, Missourians poured into the state to elect a pro-slavery territorial government over the objection of Kansas residents. This prompted Kansans to elect their own antislavery government. The issue bitterly divided the new territory to the point of bloodshed. Kansas burned in a harbinger to the wider conflict to come.

The Pacific railroad remained a dusty stack of survey maps until 1861 when the boil that became the war of secession finally burst. Southern legislators resigned their seats in congress and returned to their homes. Opposition to a central route to the Pacific disappeared. Union Pacific and Central Pacific proposals for a transcontinental railroad were put forward and approved by Congress in 1862. The Herculean construction effort would not complete until 1869, just in time to bind the nation’s reconstruction in economic union never to be shaken again. American commerce, defense and settlement could now traverse the continent from Atlantic to Pacific in relative comfort and safety and do so in the breathtaking span of ten days.

Once in awhile, historical research takes an unexpected turn. The politics of selecting a route for the transcontinental railroad provide a fascinating insight to the events of the Kansas Missouri border war. For most of us it’s a connection popular history overlooks. There are lessons in that history.

Next Week:
The Lessons of History

https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt

Ride easy,
Paul

A Missouri Compromise

Throughout the early years of our Republic the United States managed to maintain an uneasy balance of power in the Senate between slave and free-states. It lasted until 1818 when Missouri applied for admission to the union as the twenty third state. Northern interests proposed to ban slavery in Missouri despite the presence of slave holdings in the territory. Southern interests were strongly opposed to any admission that would upset the balance of power in the Senate which protected their longstanding economic interest in the practice of slavery. The issue remained contentious until Maine applied for statehood, at which point both territories could be admitted, while maintaining the Senate’s balance of power.

In 1820 Henry Clay proposed legislation that became known as The Missouri Compromise. The bill proposed to put the advance of slavery to rest on some more permanent basis. By its provisions, Louisiana Purchase territories west of Missouri and north of that state’s southern border would be admitted to the union as free-states. Territories south of Missouri’s southern border would be admitted as slave states. The effect was to defer for a time territorial disputes over the slavery issue. That equilibrium would necessarily be upset by the routing of a Pacific railroad.

Both northern and southern interests rightly reasoned that building the Pacific railroad would spread settlement westward along the rail route and with it the territorial march to statehood. If the Pacific railroad followed a northern route, territorial expansion would necessarily advance in free-state territory. If the southern route were selected, territorial expansion would propagate the practice of slavery. The country became a house divided over the choice of a rail route to the Pacific. The Missouri Compromise blocked the path to progress and prosperity.

Next Week:
Perfectly Reasonable Foolishness

https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt

Ride easy,
Paul

Wither A Transcontinental Railroad?

Building a rail route to the Pacific became a national priority with the acquisition of territories as far west as California and the subsequent discovery of gold in 1849. It shaped up to be a monumental engineering fete in national resources, will and treasure. The first challenge was where to build it?

In 1853 Congress ordered a survey for the purpose of choosing the most practical and economic rail route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. The War Department commissioned five survey parties. Three parties would proceed west from the Mississippi, exploring alternate routes through the northern plains, central plains to the Rocky Mountains and the newly acquired southwestern territories. Two parties would explore alternate passages for the westbound routes to reach northern or southern California.

The survey teams finished their work in the fall of 1854. The War Department put forward its recommendation of the southern route favored by Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis. Northerners in congress thought the recommendation reflected a certain ‘regional’ bias. In fact, the controversy over which route to select quickly bogged down in regional differences over the future of territorial expansion.

This is where the connections between familiar events became unfamiliar to me. I never saw the transcontinental railroad as a catalyst for the events that followed. Now I’ll admit I’m not a graduate historian. I’m sure this connection is old hat to some of them; but folks I talk to shake their heads or shrug their shoulders at the rest of this story. It seems the American history classes most of us had in school missed this connection. The controversy stirred up by selecting a route for the Pacific railroad cut straight to the heart of the slavery issue.

Next Week:
A Missouri Compromise

https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt

Ride easy,
Paul

A Transcontinental Railroad

One of the most enjoyable aspects of writing historical novels is the research. Once in awhile, that research can take an unexpected turn. One of those turns came about while researching the politics of choosing a route for the transcontinental railroad. I discovered a puzzle filled with familiar events and unfamiliar connections. It’s an interesting bit of history that leads this post series to a rather unexpected contemporary lesson.

Many of you know from time to time these posts take on topics of interest to young people. This series focuses on a chapter of history of interest to young people, studying American History. If you have a child or grandchild studying our nation’s history, you might want to share this series with them. They will get a slant on a slice of history I doubt they will get in class. They might even find the seed for an insightful paper.

I’ve long had a fascination with the transcontinental railroad. In its day it was an engineering achievement of monumental proportions. It played an important part in two of my books. I thought I knew something about that chapter in our history. What I discovered in researching the route selection controversy surprised me.

The notion of a railway to the Pacific became a natural progression in our nation’s ambition to a manifest destiny west. The idea took root following the end of the Mexican American War. Under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States acquired western territories stretching from Texas to California for $15 million. The discovery of gold the following year at Sutter’s Mill in California provided a tidy return on that real-estate investment.

The California gold rush highlighted the need for a rail route to the Pacific. Reaching the nation’s western-most possession could take as much as a year by dangerous overland travel or at best months by sea. As a practical matter there was no way to defend California. A Pacific railroad became a national priority. The question of what route it should take quickly emerged as a lightening rod for political controversy.

Next Week:
Whither A Transcontinental Railroad?

https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt

Ride easy,
Paul

Briscoe Cane

I found him seated back to the wall at a corner table in one of the more disreputable saloons in a shabby part of town. Briscoe Cane was easily recognizable from the file I’d compiled on him. He bore lean weather lined features that might have been stitched out of old saddle leather. He had hawk features, punctuated by cold grey eyes animated by some inner light that turned on and off with his interest. Shoulder length hair, gray before its time, gave him an aged appearance. His lean angular, hickory hard frame at first appeared awkward. For the object of one of his pursuits, misestimating his appearance might prove fatal. Cane was known to possess cat like quickness and deadly accuracy in the use of a veritable arsenal of weaponry concealed under a black frock coat. I approached his table under cover of a friendly smile.

“Mr. Cane?”

“What’s it to you?”

“I’d like a word with you.”

“Air’s free.”

“May I sit?” He favored me with an annoyed glance.

“Suit yourself.”

“Mr. Cane, I’ve followed your work with interest. I could use a man of your abilities in my organization.”

“My abilities? What do you know of my abilities? We’ve never met.”
It was true, we had never met. But my file on the man was rather complete.

“I know, for example, you favor a pair of fine balanced bone handled blades one sheathed behind that .44 holster rig and the other in your left boot. I know you can draw and throw with either hand fast enough to silently defeat another man’s gun draw.”

He arched a brow.

“I know you are equally fast with that Colt and a .41 caliber Forehand & Wadsworth ‘Bull Dog’ rigged for cross draw at your back. Some consider a spur trigger pocket pistol the weapon of choice for a whore. Such a notion would sadly misestimate your use of it. Those that do, seldom do so for long.”

His eyes narrowed in a squint. “Where the hell did you get all this, Mr. ahh?”

“Crook, Colonel David J. Crook, U.S. Army retired. Where I got the information is unimportant. What is important is that I have it. I also know you carry a Henry rifle and I’m told you can pluck out a man’s eye at a thousand paces. I know that when called for, you possess a master craftsman’s skill with explosives. In my humble opinion, were it not for the staunch religious foundation afforded by your upbringing you might have had a more prosperous career as an assassin than the one you have as a bounty hunter. So as you see, your abilities are quite well suited to my organization.”

His brows bunched over the bridge of his nose. “Your organization?”

“Yes, the Great Western Detective League. We are an association of law enforcement professionals across the west. We cooperate in solving crimes.”

“A law enforcement association headed by a man named Crook. Other than a bit of humor I don’t see what that’s got to do with me. I hunt for bounty.”

“Precisely! So do we, after a fashion. And that’s why you would be a perfect fit for my organization.”

“I work alone.”

“If you prefer, that can be arranged.”

“Don’t need no arrangin’. I work alone now.”

“But don’t you see that’s your problem?”

“Look Colonel I work alone. I don’t need no organization.”

“Oh but you do.”

“Why?”

“For information.”

“For information. What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What exactly are you working on now, Mr. Cane?”

“What business is that of yours?”

“Further to my point, at the moment you’re not working on anything.” I didn’t know that of course. It was only a guess. Like hunches, guesses are things an investigator must play from time to time.

He scratched the bristled stubble on his chin. “How’d you know that?”

I shrugged. “Investigators are paid to know things. Your current circumstance suits my point perfectly. You are not gainfully engaged at the moment. I on the other hand have here in my pocket a two thousand five hundred dollar opportunity.”

Both brows parted wide eyed. He waved the bartender over with a glass and poured me a drink.“Two thousand five hundred dollars you say.”

“That’s correct. Your share could amount to one thousand five hundred dollars if you take the assignment and succeed.”

“What about the rest?”

“That belongs to the Great Western Detective League. I take twenty five percent to compensate my administration of the league. The other fifteen percent goes into an escrow for distribution in equal shares to all league members at the end of the year. That yearly bonus can amount to a tidy sum. It assures our members interest in the league’s overall success.”

“Hell if I work alone, I get the whole thing.”

“No you don’t. If you work alone, you sit here not working. That’s the value of information. That’s the value of belonging to the League. The League casts a wide net. We get the best information. We get superior results. So superior that clients like Wells Fargo seek us out with opportunities like this one.” I drew a folded sheet from my inside coat pocket for emphasis. He eyed it. “Is it better to work steady for sixty percent of the proceeds plus a bonus on the success of other league members; or to sit here idle for one hundred percent of sometimes?” His mouth turned down at the corners, bent in serious contemplation.

“Alright, Colonel, I’ll give your League a try. Tell me about this opportunity of yours.”

“Splendid!”

Wanted Sam Bass is the first book in my new Great Western Detective League series. You’ll get to know Colonel Crook, Briscoe Cane, Beau Longstreet and a colorful cast of characters as they pursue the notorious stage and train robber.

https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt

Ride easy,
Paul