Inspiration coming from the land and an author

by Rain Trueax

Zane Grey with one of his guides-- painting inside the lodge at Kohl's Ranch

Most writers have authors who inspired them. For me, one of the earliest, was Zane Grey for his mix of action, romance, and nature. His books made me want to be in the places he described because I knew he'd written of what was real. I loved how he depicted the land having the power to change lives.

Alongside my desk is one of his books. It originally came out as To the Last Man, inspired by a real feud in the Tonto Basin-- [The Pleasant Valley War]. Years after the censored version, the book came out as he had originally intended-- Tonto Basin. Even back then but more so today, Zane Grey is criticized for not being politically correct. He had his prejudices and was a product of his time. He wrote his stories when the West wasn't that far removed from its wild and woolly days. Remember Arizona was denied statehood until 1912-- some say because the rest of the states thought it was still too violent. There was some conflict over it not wanting to be one state with New Mexico for possible racist reasons. Add to it that it seemed barren without water. Whatever the reasons, it was the last of the contiguous states to be admitted.

Much as I loved Grey's heroes and heroines, his descriptions of nature inspired me the most and probably contributed to my own love of it for my writing. He brought the land alive as a real character in his stories. As a hunter and fisherman, he walked the trails about which he wrote.

As an example of what I loved, the following is a snippet typed from the book. It was worth the work as I am still inspired to remember to bring to my books the nature that I always found in his.

 "Early in July the hot weather came. Down in the red ridges of the Tonto it was hot desert. The nights were cool, the early mornings were pleasant, but the day was something to endure. When the white cumulus clouds rolled up out of the southwest, growing larger and thicker and darker, here and there coalescing into a black thunderhead, Jean welcomed them. He liked to see the gray streamers of rain hanging down low from a canopy of black, and the roar of rain on the trees as it approached like a trampling army was always welcome. The grassy flats, the rocky slopes, the thickets of manzanita and scrub oak and cactus were dusty, glaring, throat-parching places under the hot summer sun."

 

As I typed the snippet, I was tempted to put in the commas that I am dinged for missing; but no, this is how it is in the book and how he wrote when you knew he'd experienced that kind of day.

We have been on the Rim many times but just one time through the valley where the feud happened. It is out of the way and required some gravel roads to leave it to the south.  It's a small place, very pretty with homes and business spread apart-- at least when we were there. Grey changed the names; but in an interview, he said there was still fear and anger from those he spoke to about that bloody time-- when it came down to the last man.

 

This photo above is not in Paradise Valley; but from 2011, near where Grey had a cabin under the Rim from where he hunted, fished, hiked, and wrote his Arizona books. 

My first time at his cabin came out of my desire to find his hunting and writing cabin. It was 1974. We had camped several miles below. It turned out the road to the cabin was closed due to storm damage. I had to see it, and we began walking. I think it was just over two miles.

Part way, some young rangers stopped and asked if we wanted a ride. We rode in the back of their pickup to the turnoff to the cabin. We were lucky that day that the caretakers were there. The cabin was one room with no bedrooms. Inside was a desk where he wrote. His guests and Grey slept in cabin tents. On that first visit, there were books for sale, and I bought three paperbacks even though I already owned them. 

In 1979, we had a second visit where the road to it was open. We parked in the parking area, but the caretaker was not there. We though could be on the porch and look in the windows.

My third time was 2011, after the monster Dude Fire had come though the rim country, and despite all efforts to save it, burned the cabin. A few mementos were saved. When we drove up anyway, the property was gated off by the association that apparently owned it.

Today there is a replica of Grey's cabin in Payson, a nearby town. I chose not to go into it as although it resembles the cabin, it's not the same for energy as when it was possible to see inside the walls that inspired a writer to create stories that still live on. 

When I wrote this, it reminded me of wanting to watch again the most recent movie (I read there were 112) based on one of Grey's books-- Riders of the Purple Sage. It's on Amazon, but I own it-- some movies I know I'll want to see again and again.  

Grey had a prejudice against Mormons and used some words that are not okay today, but this film avoids that and goes to the real problem with some groups using religion-- greed, search for power, and fundamentalism. Ed Harris and his wife, Amy Madigan, starred and kept it true to the energy of the book. It was filmed in gorgeous, red rock country, which is not on the Rim but to the north. Arizona is a state of diversity, which is why I've loved having a home there for over twenty years now and where I have placed so many of my books. 

 https://www.amazon.com/Riders-Purple-Sage-Ed-Harris/dp/B00A92MD8G

Roadtrip 2019 style

by Rain Trueax

It is in human DNA to travel. While some stay where they were planted ideas and growth as a culture come from moving on and up-- or down. At different times it has been on foot and in search of better hunting grounds or maybe out of fear of what had moved into the area. If they wanted more than what could be carried on their backs, humans have used wagons, carts, travoises, or a pack animal. Heavier items had to be left behind. For Native Americans grinding stones would be stashed to return and use for another season. Most recently, we've seen this happening across the world as people leave regions they find less hospitable and hope for a better life elsewhere.

Not all travel then or now has been permanent. Humans go on vacations, explore new regions, and some take roadtrips. In modern times, innovations have allowed us to take more with us-- in fact, everything. Modern homes on the road can have the same luxuries possible at home-- just less of them. Some are making motor coaches, trailers, etc. into full-time homes as they move around the country for jobs or just exploring. With the use of solar panels, heat, refrigeration, or cooling even in the middle of the wilderness, modernity is possible.

The RV Life in the West

by Rain Trueax

All of my books are set in the American West. It's where I live and love and where I know. They have varied from historic to contemporary along with some paranormals (which are hard to put in a box as they are kind of contemporaries with some fantasy). One of the contemporaries is about the RV lifestyle.

A Ghostly Ghost Town?

by Rain Trueax

In 2010, my husband and i were on a freewheeling trip through Montana, with no set destinations. He suggested we stop at Bannack. I wasn't that excited at the possibility, since I knew little of its history as a mining town. When we got there, I learned it was where Henry Plummer met his end, and I instantly got more interested.

Bannack was supposed to be Bannock, for the Native American tribe. When registering it, someone misspelled it. After stopping at the visitor center, paying the admittance and getting a small pamphlet explaining some of the buildings, we were free to wander through the town. It was very picturesque, perfect for the camera with structures in better shape than many other ghost towns  I have visited.

In several of the buildings, I wondered if there might be ghosts. Mining towns of that time had many sudden deaths with much potential for a spirit hanging around. I didn't actually feel any energy from a ghost-- despite being open to it. Maybe a nighttime visit would have a different result. Do ghosts have a preferred time to come out? Especially in the hotel, I took photos wondering if something more would show up-- it didn't.

One of the more likely possibilities as a ghost would be Henry Plummer. His story is filled with all the controversy as is found with other bigger than life people of that time. Was Plummer a murderous outlaw or in the end victimized by the vigilantes who were the real robbers and killers. Online, you can find many opinions as to who he was and his history. Here's one-- [Henry Plummer].

When I decided to write about Bannack, I went looking online for 'ghost hunters' who had been there. Although I have never seen a ghost myself, I have been places where I've felt strange energies. I can't say it was true at Bannack. When I return someday, which I'd love to do, and camp in the lovely campground with our vacation trailer, I would at least know who might have been unwilling to leave even after death.

Dorothy Dunn was in her teens when she drowned in the dredge pond August 4, 1916. Her friend, who had been with her that fateful day, was the first to claim she appeared to her as a ghost. Today, it appears children are most likely to see her wearing a blue dress. She has talked to some in Hotel Meade, which had been her home, as her father was hotel manager at the time of her death.

Supposedly, the hotel has other apparitions. An older woman haunts the second floor as well as Dorothy. Crying children are also supposedly heard by some. Are those ghosts or impressions left by past energies. The hotel was used for a time

as a hospital-- places very likely to have ghostly manifestations.  Saloons like the one alongside here have sudden death stories of shootouts and bullets gone astray.
 
Another building with ghostly stories is Chrismans' Store. It had offices at the back used by Henry Plummer. Some, who do this kind of research, claim to have photographed hauntings with fuzzy figures. This though is the kind of thing that always makes me wary, since photos can be so easily faked. Still, are there even today ghostly meetings there where the men chew the fat-- so to speak?

The Bessette House is another claimed location. Abed Bessette, who first owned it, was one of the vigilantes. He raised sheep and owned several buildings, including the hotel. He died in Bannack in 1919. Did he not want to leave? 

The possibilities for ghosts in his home go beyond him. During typhoid, diphtheria, and other killer epidemics, his home was used to quarantine patients and many died there. There is supposedly photo evidence of a ghost there.

In terms of becoming a ghost, one of the most exciting potentials has to be Henry Plummer. After a checkered history (read link above) in 1863, he had arrived in Bannack where he was appointed sheriff.  Was he using that as a way to also rob and murder with his posse, named The Innocents? Whoever was doing the violence, 102 people were murdered in mining camps and along the road between [Bannack and Virginia City]. 

On December 23, 1863, a vigilante committee was organized, formed a posse, captured him, put him in his own jail before they hung him on a gallows above the town, along with two of his deputies. That gallows is still there or so goes the story. He'd done a lot in his 27 years but was he trying to do right by Bannack?  Questions remain as to whether the real robbers were the vigilantes since the robberies didn't stop with his death. 

Was Plummer wronged, and he hangs around the town out of anger at a tragic miscarriage of justice, a desire to find vindication, or did he have nowhere else to go after a misused life? There are those who claim they have seen him in the Skinner Saloon, Chrismans' store and other buildings in the town. His grave, higher up the gulch with the gallows, has been robbed twice. The second time it is claimed his skull was taken and put in a saloon. That saloon later burned to the ground.

Do I believe in ghosts? I don't know. I have friends who claim to see them. I've watched a couple of the cable shows where they search for them, knew one of the psychics who was on a show when they went to Tombstone ghost hunting. I haven't been convinced ghosts are a reality-- don't know that they're not either. 

I've put ghosts in only one of my books, A Price to be Paid. It's an Arizona paranormal/metaphysical romance that goes into reincarnation and whether one lifetime is enough to pay for wrong deeds. The possible man needing to pay for his misspent life was in one of my Arizona historicals, where he met a fitting end.

For me, such thinking comes under the heading of speculation and mystery. I won't go ghost hunting... well, unless I head back to Bannack to camp in that lovely campground.