Miss Vickie McDonough and Miss Victoria Bylin are going to come calling tomorrow!

The dear ladies are resting up at the hotel and getting ready for a big day when the sun rises. We do hope Miss Vickie and Miss Victoria find their accomodations suitable. The Fillies do try.

Miss Vickie is going to tell us what she found out when she researched the Badlands of North Dakota. Very interesting information. In fact, ah find it fascinating to know that a real genuine French marquis put down roots in North Dakota and made quite a mark on the state.

Miss Victoria shared her favorite cowboys when she was here last time. Now, she has a list of her favorite horses, both real and made-up. What’s a cowboy without his horse? They go together like milk and honey.

Let’s give them both a hearty Wildflower Junction welcome. Did I tell you they’ve come toting prizes?

And don’t forget our big birthday celebration starting Monday. We’ll have more fun than a cowboy at a greased pig contest! Never know what’ll happen next. And the Fillies have a bundle of prizes to give.

Charlene Sands                                            

It’s true, you may not want to read this if you’re a lover of Hollywood’s version of the old West!  But I live twenty minutes from the screen capital of the world.  Hardly a day goes by that I don’t meet someone, or speak to someone, or SEE someone related to the industry.  My very own daughter will soon have in-laws high in the ranks of television and movie producing, but I digress.  

 Some people ask, why don’t we see more westerns on the screen?

The answer might be as simple as the bottom line.  Time period movies are very costly.  Setting up towns, designing the costumes, acquiring the props of everyday items used in the west is expensive.  Notice they don’t make “B” movie westerns, better known back in the day as Audie Murphy or Ronald Reagan films because in order to make a western, big stars, like Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Renee Zelwigger, Ed Harris or Kevin Costner have to be associated with the project to bring in the big producing dollars. 

I am looking forward to the new western movie called Appaloosa which does look terrific. If we’re lucky, we get one really great western per year! 

So, what is fact and what is myth in the Old West? 

 The towns we recognize on the silver screen may not have looked like that in real life.  A town usually was plotted out to have many more streets than just one down the center of town.  In movies, rarely do we see residential homes in town, yet the majority of people living in the area, aside from ranchers and farmers, did live within the town’s limits in houses.  Most homes were located at the end of the streets to avoid summer dust and spring mud as people drove by. Decent folk, often wanted to stay away from the center of town, where saloons brought in gamblers and drunks.  Also, good people segregated their families from the part of town known as the “dead line” where brothels and immoral practices were doing business.

Towns in the west were dirty, smelly and cramped (except Wildflower Junction) with most buildings right next to each other so if one would catch fire, often the entire street burned down.  

Railroad towns were formed in the shape of a T where the top portion being the street paralleling the railroad and the straight part being the main street in town.   

 Not So Wild West

Lawlessness in the West, has been blown way out of proportion.  Yes, there was crime, but not to the extreme that we see onscreen with shoot-outs and duels and bank robberies happening in every other scene. Dime novels helped to spur this myth  with gunfights in the streets and stagecoach robberies and stories that were clearly made up fantasies of some very imaginative writers. The true story is much more boring, of hard work, and fending for oneself and trying to make ends meet. Many did carry guns, but that was less for protection from gunmen and more to hunt for food and to protect themselves from wild animals.  In fact, many towns had ordinances that made it illegal to carry guns in town. People entering the town often stopped by the sheriff office to surrender their weapons during their stay.  Yes, the frontier, mountain and plains towns had some violence, but many would more likely die from starvation, thirst, falling off a mountain or horse, freezing, snakebite or being attacked by wild animals.

Not nearly as romantic, is it? 

Myth-Busters Revealed

Here are  some widely used scenes in movies and maybe even in books that are have truly failed when actually tried, according to the TV show Myth-Busters.

Horse Jailbreak:

Procedure/Experimental Design: Build a wild west jail and attach a strong rope to the bars. Attach the other end of the rope to a horse. Make the horse gallop as fast as he can with the most power possible to try to pull the bars off the wall.

Results: The horses couldn’t pull the bars out.Conclusion: Required force not capable of being supplied by horses.

Procedure/Experimental Design: —- To build a jail wall to the specs of a true old west jail cell 

 Conclusion: —- A stick of dynamite will potentially kill the person you are attempting to free and barely loosens the bars enough to remove them

Busted or Not Busted: —-Busted

So, I guess what we lovers of westerns have to do, is suspend our disbelief for a few hours and simply enjoy the aura of the Wild West. 

Just pretend you didn’t read this.

And tell us what other westerns clichés you notice that couldn’t possibly hold true?  What favorite western, either book or movie depicted the grittiness and truth that was the Old West?

Since our 2^nd Prize Sizzling Stampede Contest winner didn’t claim their prize, post a comment and we’ll draw a name randomly today for that wonderful prize of two autographed books and a Tom Selleck DVD!

Click on cover to purchase from Amazon

Don’t miss your chance to win the unclaimed prize from Petticoats and Pistols Sizzling Summer Stampede contest!   Win a signed book from Karen Kay and Pat Potter, along with the Tom Selleck DVD, Crossfire Trail!!

Simply share your thoughts in Charlene’s Myths blog, and we’ll pick a random winner at the end of the day!! Remember to check back later to see if you’ve won!

Here’s what our Grand Prize Winner, Melissa C has to say:

I received my package today and am so very thankful!!  This box will provide me hours of entertainment!  Thanks so much to each of the contributors.  As I read the books, I will review them on my blog and let the author know.

My how time flies when you’re having fun!

Hello Darlings,

Petticoats and Pistols finished its first year in fine fashion and it’s time for celebratin’. The Fillies are all ready to kick up their heels and dance a jig. If only you could see us. We’re quite a sight.

We’ve dusted everything in sight, baked pies and cakes, and gotten gussied up in our best dresses.

Starting Monday and lasting all week, we’ll have a passel of treats in store for you — games, poems, and more fun things to do than you’ve ever seen. By Friday you’ll have learned everything you ever wanted to know about the Fillies. (Well most things anyway. I won’t tell you about the racket that comes from Cheryl’s and Pam’s houses sometimes. And that I cheat, but only on occasion and only with a handsome hunk of a cowboy. Shhh! It’s our little secret. )

AND to wrap up the shebang and tie it with a big bow, we have a whole wagonload of prizes to give out, a smidge over a dozen to be exact, at the end of the birthday bash.

Shoot, we’re just tickled to death to give back to every one of you who’ve given us so much! I swear, I don’t know where ever I’ve seen more loyal eager supporters of a group of cowgirls. You take the cake. We’re proud of our accomplishments and proud of you for sharing the ride with us.

Thank you all very much!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!

Today, September 25, is my birthday.  I’m older than dirt, but that’s not what this post is about.  It’s about celebration—and challenge.   Every year, on or around my birthday, I try to do something a little crazy.  Once I took a flying lesson.  Another time I rafted the Grand Canyon.  Last year I went to Peru.  Some years find me at home.  Even then I celebrate—I  climb the mountain. 

Mt. Timpanogos (from a Paiute word meaning rocky river) is 30 miles south of my home.  Its spectacular summit rises to 11,749 feet.  The climb isn’t a technical one.  But it’s long and exhausting, about six hours to the top and three or four hours down.  For me and my family it’s become a September ritual. 

The trailhead starts at about 7,000 feet .  To say that the scenery is breathtaking is an understatement.  The trail zigzags upward through a series of hanging valleys.  In the summer there are wildflowers, in the fall the blaze of turning aspen and maple.  We usually see deer and moose.  Higher up in the rockslides we can watch the hay-gathering antics of little picas. 

Below the crags that mark the top, the land spreads out into a wide Alpine basin.  In July and August, when it’s filled with flowers, it looks a lot like the cover of my November book, THE BORROWED BRIDE.  In September the flowers are gone, but the hills are cloaked in hues of bronze and gold. 

The climb from there to the top is short but grueling.  The first stop is the “saddle,” a spot about the size of a bus (far right in photo), where you’re on the skyline but not the highest peak.  From there the trail zigzags across a sheer rock face to the summit.  It’s easy to get lightheaded at that altitude.  If you fall—and people have—they go looking for you with a body bag.  I did the full summit on my 50^th birthday with my daughter and sister.  With my mild fear of heights, it scared the living daylights out of me.  At the top there’s this little metal hut.  I lay down on the floor and shook.  These days I just go to the saddle.  Once is enough. 

I was hoping to have done this year’s climb in time to write this blog.  But last weekend’s weather was iffy, and Timpanogos is no place to be caught in a storm.  The weather is looking better for Sunday, so I plan to go with my son’s family and maybe a friend or two.  I’ll let you know if we made it. 

How about you?  How do you feel about birthdays?  Do you have a special way of celebrating?

Click on one of the small books below to go to Amazon.com. 

Hello again!

Saturday’s gonna be a heck of a day here in Wildflower Junction, I’ll tell you what. We’re gonna have ourselves two Vickies.

Miss Vickie McDonough and Miss Victoria Bylin will stop in and talk about the Badlands of North Dakota, favorite horses (both real and fictional) and who knows what else. All I do know is that whatever happens we’ll be in top form.

And they’re toting prizes too! Can’t beat a thing like that.

We have this entertaining business down pat. We do love having guests. It’s the highlight of our week just seeing who’s gonna ride over the ridge and into the valley. We always have a welcome sign hanging you know.

So, get yourselves busy. You have a personal invite from the Fillies to join us Saturday. Can you think of anywhere else you’d rather be besides with two Vickies and the rest of us?

By Jeff Barnes

Mary and I were talking about topics I could use as an introduction to the forts and my book, “”Forts of the Northern Plains.” After a couple ideas were discussed, I thought I might talk about how the forts were built, and why some of them are still around and some aren’t.

When you visit the forts of the Northern Plains (and please take along my book as a guide!), you’re going to see a wide disparity in what remains. Fort Snelling in Minnesota and Fort Robinson in Nebraska, for example, have a great number of the original buildings in place. Posts such as Fort Abraham Lincoln in North Dakota have some rebuilt buildings, while other sites like Fort Sanders in Wyoming have been reduced to ruins.

Many other sites are remembered only by historical markers, including the Council Bluffs Blockhouse in Iowa. And some are completely gone, such as the Missouri River-inundated Fort Bennett in South Dakota.

But why are some forts still around? And why are some gone? I like to tell people there are three rules about forts to explain that:

All forts are not created equal.

All forts are not treated equally.

All forts are not remembered equally.

Now, when I say “all forts are not created equal,” it refers to their construction. Think of it as the homes of the three little pigs–straw and sticks will fall; brick will stand. Forts built of adobe and of wood are in most instances gone; those of stone and brick are mostly still around.

Of course, not all forts could be built of stone. Forts were generally constructed from the materials that were at hand, and I can use my home state of Nebraska for all of these examples.

Fort Mitchell, near Scotts Bluff National Monument, was built of adobe, formed of sand, water, clay and organic material such as straw or even dried buffalo chips. Besides being cheap to build, adobe structures also needed continuous maintenance depending upon the materials used. In the western Nebraska climate, Fort Mitchell crumbled into dust within years of being abandoned.

Fort Atkinson on the Missouri River was built of timber and was well-maintained during its years of operation from 1819 to 1827. Without maintenance, it was in ruins by the time artist Karl Bodmer painted the site in 1833, just six years after the fort’s closing. That was due in part to the eastern Nebraska climate, but also to settlers in the area who lifted the fort’s precut lumber (as was often the case when forts were abandoned.)

When forts were abandoned, the wood-frame buildings were usually sold by the government and moved to nearby farms or towns. The buildings of Fort Hartsuff–located in central Nebraska–were built of concrete because of the gravel and limestone in the area. Since Fort Hartsuff’s concrete buildings couldn’t be moved when the fort was closed in the 1870s, a farm was built around the fort!

Fort Crook was established in 1894 with all of its buildings built of brick. Most of those buildings remain today as part of the fort’s successor–Offutt Air Force Base–and its 1894 guardhouse is the oldest continually operating prison in Nebraska.

As far as not being treated equally, some forts were maintained and updated through the years and some were intentionally destroyed. The original wooden buildings of Fort Omaha were replaced with redbrick structures at the turn of the century to enable it to survive. There were once around 90 wood-frame buildings at Fort Niobrara near Valentine; most of the buildings were sold when the fort was closed, and only a hay barn remains today.

And for being remembered: Fort Atkinson was rebuilt in the 1970s as a state historic park because of the enthusiastic support of local citizens and the state. The Friends of Fort Atkinson are there for the first weekend of every month in the summer as the fort’s soldiers, bakers, coopers, blacksmiths and laundresses to keep the fort alive. Fort Mitchell, however, had no such community support for its reconstruction, although it is remembered by a state historical marker.

So what makes the difference in a fort’s survival? I keep going back to threes–construction, climate and community–all of which have a say in whether you find a state park or a state marker when looking for a fort. Undboutedly, though, community is THE most important element in keeping forts alive today.

A freelance writer and fifth-generation Nebraska, Jeff Barnes is a former newspaper reporter and editor, past chairman of the Nebraska Hall of Fame commission, and former marketing director for the Durham Western Heritage Museum. He traveled more than 13,000 miles in researching and photgraphing Forts of the Northern Plains, his first book.

To buy Jeff’s book, click here:  Forts Of The Northern Plains: Guide to Historic Military Posts of the Plains Indians Wars

Yee-haw! We have some Sizzlin’ Summer Stampede of Prizes Contest winners!

Grand Prize goes to . . . . Melissa Conatser

Third Place Prize . . . . Aaron Martin

We have no 2nd place prize winner. Things kinda got in a big knot (probably due to Hurricane Ike.) It competely bumfuzzled us when we couldn’t get a reply from her email address. Darn the luck! We apologize for it taking so long to make the announcement.

So . . . . Charlene is going to give away that 2nd place prize to one lucky commentor on her Friday blog. The prize is: Pat Potter’s Lawless, Karen Kay’s Soaring Eagle’s Embrace, and Crossfire Trail (a Tom Selleck DVD.)

Everyone be sure and circle their calendar for Friday. Don’t want to miss your chance!

In case you missed the announcement on Sunday, Mr. Jeff Barnes will be here bright and early tomorrow.

Mr. Barnes is a former newspaper reporter and editor and he’s written a dandy book. It’s called Forts of the Northern Plains and is full of all kinds of interesting information, some that just might boggle your mind.

We’re privileged and honored to have a man of Jeff Barnes’ character ride into Wildflower Junction. The dear man was once the press secretary for Ben Nelson, Nebraska’s governor. I do declare! The Fillies are tickled pink to have him visit our fair town.

I hope you’ll join us in welcoming him. Make a day of it. We’ll have lots of fun.

Howdy!

Although I’ve been talking recently about survival methods and preparedness and other things like this, I thought we might take a break to go over another topic that is dear to my heart.  The medicine man.  Next blog I’ll get back on topic of survival, okay?

Medicine men, who were they?  What could they do?  What were they expected to do?  As you might suppose, the medicine man was of necessity connected (more than any other member of the tribe) to the spiritual side of life.  If a boy showed promise, he would be taken under the wing of the current medicine and and trained rigorously.  His training would consist of scouting skills, where he would be required to be able to trace the paths of ants and other small, as well as large life.  He would be expected to be able to walk amongst the enemy without detection.  This helped to develop the mind of the boy, who was also taught as a scout to be able to detect in the wild when there was another and foreign presence.  Some of these scouts could tell you from the changes in air currents, when there was a foreign presence entered into the landscape and when there wasn’t.  He was also expected to survive with what he might consider luxury in any environment — going into it with nothing but the shirt on his back.

Many are the stories of medicine men who went out alone into some of the most hostile (yet beautiful) environments, where he was expected to “make it go right” and to survive and survive well.  Once mastered, the boy went on to train his body, and he was expected to train his body hard.  He joined in with games, he ran distances that would stagger us even by today’s standards — he was expected to be able to run all day with nothing but water to refresh him, and to arrive calmly and not even be out of breath.  The theory was that one had to have control over not only one’s mind, but be in the most excellent physical condition, if he were to be able to connect with the spiritual realm.  Both mind and body could hold the spirit back, thus the emphasis on training.

As you might expect, this training might take many years.  But once the boy had a master over his mind, as well as his body, he was ready to develop the other side his nature, the spiritual side.  Some call it the realm of the soul, some say spirit.  It was not the same as what we now have come to think of as a spiritualist.  Rather, the boy was expected to go out into the world and to observe it, to pray, to fast, to commune with the Creator and all life.  He was carefully watched and trained by the medicine man, but he was often sent out to remote places, there to find out who he was in relation to the world at large.

I have read some interesting tales of some of these medicine men, and their near escapes from death before they were at last able to trust to their environment and to the Creator.  I know of no tragedies.  I have read of some strife before the boy was able to become into possession of the spiritual side of life.

But what could a medicine man do?  What were his strengths?  What was expected of him?

All tribes were different, so let’s examine one tribe that I have studied somewhat — I don’t profess to know all there is to know about this subject.  Heaven forbid!  In the Lakota tribes (the Sioux), it was believed that the medicine men had lived amongst those supernaturals beings or lore, the Thunders, before his birth.   Thus, boys were watched for by the medicine man who would show signs that would point to his being able to become a medicine man.  Within the Sioux tribe (as well as the Blackfeet tribe) the medicine man was expected to be able to cure the sick, to foretell events that were important to the tribe and/or to a war party, good or bad.

Visions were extremely important, and a medicine man was often called upon to “interpret” dreams.  He was also expected to know (and his training did encompass) a thorough knowledge of herbs.  For instance, one of my best friends from the Blackfeet tribe told me that her medicine man told her that there are no poisonous berries, etc, that taste sweet.  Therefore, if you taste a berry and it is sweet, chances are that it might be okay to eat.  Now don’t try this and hold me responsible for it — I’m just relaying information.  But I know that my friend used to go around LA tasting all kinds of things, until I kinda took her aside and told her how worried I was about her doing this.  But you know something, she was never harmed by going around in the wild and tasting these fruits.

Medicine men were often very handsome when they were young.  Imagine, they have been trained all their life into physical alertness, they have trained to act in the best interest of their tribe, they have schooled their mind so that they us their skills only for the good of the people, and not evil, and they kept their word of honor as though their life might depend upon it.    Ritual was highly important, because a ceremony done incorrectly was believed to bring bad luck.   A medicine man was also expected to do such things as set broken bones, take care of sprains or pulled muscles and he was expected to be able to attend to deep wounds.  This they did without flinching.  If you’re interested in learning more about the medicine man, I might refer you to a children’s book that you can check out at your local library called THE INDIAN MEDICINE MAN by Robert Hofsinde (Gray-Wolf).  It makes for easy, yet fascinating reading.  And for even more information, might I also suggest the book, GRANDFATHER, by…goodness I can’t recall his name right now.   I’ll try to get hold of it and post it on the comments.

So tell me, what observations have you had about these things — i.e., physcial fitness, strength of mind, spiritual awareness?  Have you made any observations about these things?  For instance, I workout almost everyday (about 6 days a week usually), and I notice little things, like my strength increasing, despite the tendency of the body to keep getting older every day.  At present I’m here in Florida at my church where I’m hoping to attain better awareness of myself as a spiritual being, etc.  What about you?  Do you have any experiences that you’d like to share with me and others?  I’d love to hear what you have to say about this.  Oh, and while I’m at it, isn’t Adam Beach dreamy?

So come on in and let’s talk.  I’d love to hear from you.  And don’t forget, if you haven’t already done so, to purchase a copy of THE LAST WARRIOR today.  Just click on the link below.