Cimarron, NM

One of my favorite things to do is to visit historic western towns.  In every single one of them, the energy of the last century feels alive to me.  This past spring, my husband and I took a jaunt down to the wild and unruly town of Cimarron, New Mexico–a historic stop along the rugged Santa Fe Trail.  We were on a mission to photograph an amazing saloon bar like the one featured in my latest story, LEAH AND THE BOUNTY HUNTER.

Over the years, Cimarron has been home to Anasazi, Apache, and Ute Indians, as well as traders, trappers, miners, and ranchers.  It’s now a lovely small town with historic buildings, a few shops, a museum . . . and a very haunted hotel–the St. James.

The St. James Hotel (originally known as the Lambert Inn) was built in 1872 by Henri Lambert–formerly the personal chef of President Lincoln–after his foray into gold mining proved less than lucrative.

The St. James, an oasis of luxury in the late 1800’s, hosted many

St. James Hotel, Cimarron, NM

well known western personages including Jesse James, Bat Masterson, Black Jack Tom Ketchum, General Sheridan, Kit Carson,

Doc Holliday, Buffalo Bill, Billy the Kid, Clay Allison, Pat Garret, Fredrick Remington, Annie Oakley, and Zane Grey.

What drew us to the hotel was the gorgeous bar in the restored saloon.

The tin ceiling in the saloon still has nearly two dozen bullet holes from gun fights that erupted inside the

room in the days when carousing cowboys rode horses through saloons and settled disputes with lead.

St. James Historic Saloon

When Henri Lambert’s sons were repairing the roof at the turn of the century, they found over 400 bullet holes in the double planked ceiling separating the saloon from the guest rooms above.

The guest rooms in the historic portion of the hotel are filled with antique and reproduction furniture.  The doors of unoccupied rooms are left open but areblocked off by velvet ropes, letting visitors peek inside rooms that look like museum vignettes.

I took some pictures of the hallways, certain I’d capture a ghostly image.  After all, with 26 recorded deaths on the premises, the probability for encountering an entity seemed high.

St. James 1st Floor Hallway

That night, I lay awake in our first floor room, listening to the music and sounds from the saloon slowly grow quiet as the hotel settled down to sleep in the wee hours of the morning.  Not a floor board creaked.  Not a door opened or closed.  No whispers from disembodied visitors echoed in our room or the hallway.  The absolute silence lulled me to sleep.

The next morning, as we were loading up our car, we came across a lovely young couple in the parking lot.  Theyhad stayed on the second floor, near the hotel’s infamous gambling room.  The woman was looking very pale and distraught.

We asked how they enjoyed their stay and quickly learned their sleep had been disturbed all night long by slamming doors, stomping in the hallway, men arguing, and a lingering scent of cigar smoke.  Her husband, a soldier, had tried numerous times to get the other occupants to settle down so that his wife could sleep.

St. James 2nd Floor Hallway

Of course, there never was anyone to scold because hell raisers in the hallway were not visitors from the human realm…

Elaine Levine is the author of 3 books in the Men of Defiance series that take place in Nineteenth Century Wyoming.  She’ll be giving away a copy of her latest release, LEAH AND THE BOUNTY HUNTER, to one lucky commenter (be sure to let her know if you prefer a paperback or a Kindle ebook version).  Visit her

website www.ElaineLevine.com for more information

about her books.

With the release of our July anthology called GIVE ME A TEXAS OUTLAW my thoughts have been firmly anchored on history’s bad boys. And Kansas had its share of them. Last month on a publicity tour to kick off the release Phyliss Miranda and I traveled up to Liberal, Kansas. From there, a dear man by the name of Tom St. Aubyn showed us the sights. We can never thank you enough, Tom!

One place that tickled our fancy was the small town of Meade. It’s home to the Dalton Gang Hideout.

Seems Grat, Bob, and Emmett Dalton’s sister, Eva married J.N. Whipple and settled down on Pearlette Street. The house perched on sort of a bluff and had a barn down below.

The Dalton Boys, being quick to spy an opportunity, constructed a 95 foot tunnel from the barn up to the basement of Eva’s residence. They placed wooden beams across an old rain wash and piled dirt over the top of it. It suited their needs to a tee. They could come and go undetected while also protecting their sister’s identity. No one in Meade knew the Daltons were related to Eva Whipple and they wanted to keep it that way.

Like so many other outlaws at the time, the Daltons, who were related to the Younger brothers, started out in law enforcement before they began robbing banks and trains. They must’ve loved the outlaw life because they kept at it until 1892 when the gang faced a hail of bullets while robbing a bank in Coffeyville, Kansas. Grat and Bob along with two other gang members were killed. Emmett Dalton received 23 bullet wounds but survived. He was given a life sentence in a Kansas penitentiary. He served 14 years before being pardoned.

Phyliss at the tunnel

In the meanwhile, the bank in Meade foreclosed on Eva and J.N.’s house and they were forced to vacate. Several new owners occupied the Whipple house and eventually the escape tunnel was found.

In the early 1940′s the WPA reinforced the tunnel with stone quarried from the Clark Ranch east of Meade and the hideout was turned into a tourist attraction.

Today the hideout is owned and operated by the Meade County Historical Society. A wonderful man by the name of Marc Ferguson is the curator in addition to being one of their historical reenactors.

Eva’s home is now a museum and is furnished much as it was in her day.

If you’re ever in Meade, stop by and say hello. Walk the tunnel and browse in the really nice gift shop. And if you’re lucky and get a chance to catch Marc playing the role of Doc Holliday you’re in for a real treat.

You can find out more about the hideout HERE .

Phyliss and I enjoyed our trip and can’t wait to go back. We’ll not soon forget all the warm friendly people we met.

Have you ever visited a historical site that stayed with you long after you left?

If you haven’t already gotten your copy of our new anthology, it’s available  online and in bookstores everywhere.

Good Morning!

Going along with a similar message from my last post, I thought we might continue on in the same vein as we did a couple of weeks ago — survival.  With droughts in the south and midwest, flooding in our farmlands and northern states and with grain elevators gradually reduced to only about 3 months of food supply, it takes only a little foresight to see that we may be in for a long haul in the near future.  To that end, I thought we might revisit some survival tactics.  I’ll be giving away, by the way, a book on survival tactics (well sort of survival tactics) — LONG ARROW’S PRIDE to some lucky blogger.  So be sure to come in and leave a message.  (Note, this offer applies to the greater 50 States and to Canada only.)

In the old days, the Indians lived off the land and rarely starved.  It wasn’t until reservation days that starvation became a real threat.  Before that time, the Indians knew what plants to look for and where to look, what animals to kill, how to kill them for food, how to jerky the meat and how to survive and live off the land.  In truth, before the last World War, most Americas were living on farms and so the Depression (I never call it the Great Depression, as I think of Great things as good things) — but the collaspe of the economy during the Depression – bad as it was, wasn’t as bad as it might be in our future because most people still lived on farms back then and knew how to grow their own food.  So, as I used to learn in the Girl Scouts, let me ask you this.  How prepared are you for a collapse if it were to come upon us?

Heaven forbid it ever happen.  But as my mother used to say, “You prepare for the worst and enjoy those things you stored when it doesn’t happen.”  So let’s go over a few things that might come in handy to have, just in case, okay?

1)  Food — do you have a minimum of a 1 year supply for all members of your family on hand.  These are storeable items like grains, dried fruits, canned organic veggies, nuts, baking soda, fish-liver oil, baking powder, and anything else that you can thing of to store — meat, etc.  Get them for long storage — again that’s minimum 1 year supply for every member of your family and any member of your family that in a catastrophe might come home.  : )

2)  Medical supplies.  You can’t have enough medical supplies.  Bandages, bandaids, aspirin, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, and any other medicine that you need.  For me, because I don’t take drugs, this means a year’s supply minimum of vitamins and minerals, as well as any herbs needed for medical emergencies.  And remember this is a 1 year supply for every member of your family — and those who might join you later on.

3)  Seeds — organic seeds, if you please.  The reason for heirloom, organic seeds is that the new Monsanto seeds and even the more common hybrid seeds don’t produce seeds for replanting — and keeping seeds from year to year is vital.  Even is you live in the city, you can start a garden of some kind.  My husband and I live in the city and instead of growing a lawn, we are now growing a garden.  We are learning also that one needs to LEARN how to garden and how to keep out pests.  So far squirrels and rabbits are benefitting from our new garden.  : )

4)  An herb garden is pretty essential.  From an herb garden you can obtain many medicinal plants — like  Echinacea and Goldenseal, as well as Oregano, sage and other herbs.  And again, even if you live on the city, you can probably start a garden on the roof or on a window seal.  You might even be able to make friends with local farmers who might be able to help you through a tough time, but I would advise you to plant as much as you can for yourself and for your family.

5)  Protection.

Now, while it might be fun to have these two men riding protection for you, probably it is a good idea to have a rifle or a gun of some kind as a form of self and family protection as well as protection of your food stores.  Personally, I think our Founding Fathers were right in guaranteeing the natural God-given right to bear arms.  Every creature will try to defend itself against any who seek to kill it.  For people, this means guns and other means to protect yourself.  After all, criminals and vandals are criminals and vandals because they can’t obey the law — therefore, they will always find a way to get guns.  My huband and I belong to Frontsight, a shooting organization that teaches you not only self-protection and makes sure that you know how to place a good shot, but teaches you when to make that shot and when not to.  But not only is protection important in emergencies — to protect the lives of your family and yourself — guns are important in keeping pests like rabbits and squirrels away from your garden — guns can also bring in fresh game in case of a food shortage.  If you don’t like guns and will absolutely not have one in your household, then I would advise you to learn self-defense — hand-to-hand — and to learn to use a bow and arrow for hunting.

Okay, let’s see.  What have I left out?  There’s something that’s important that I’m not thinking of here.

Oh, yes, a subject that is dear to the pocketbook:

6)  Some sort of cash.  Now what do I mean by cash?  Some say silver or gold with lead to protect that silver or gold.  : )  Some say to invest in the Euro — just in case the dollar falls.  I will say right here and right now that this is not an area that I know much about.  And if there is some kind of castastrophe — heaven forbid — or martial law — double heaven forbid — what might people use as money?  Barter?  Gold?  Silver?  Your guess is as good as mine.  All I know is that you might want to have something on hand to barter with.

Well, now that’s all I can think of right now.  You might be able to think of other things that one might to do be prepared.  In the old days — the days of my grandparents, all families had either a full year’s supply of food on hand and/or a victory garden.  When I was growing up, almost all of my neighbors  had gardens of one kind or another — chicken coops, etc.

How about you?  Can you think of something I’ve forgotten here in order to be prepared for any sort of economical or other kind of emergency?  Do you remember the victory gardens?  Families with supplies of food on hand, just in case?  Or were you a Girl Scout and taught to always be prepared?

I’m not wishing for  this — I hope a cause for this never happens — but just in case…

And don’t forget, I’ll be giving away a free copy of LONE ARROW’S PRIDE to some lucky blogger.  This applies, by the way to the great 50 States and Canada only. 

So come on in and let’s talk about survival.

  A Gunfighter’s Rules to Live By

• Bring a gun. Two is even better

• Stand with the sun at your back

• Shoot first and don’t miss

• There’s no such thing as fair play

• In a gunfight take your time in a hurry

• If you’re not shooting you better be loading

Okay, I admit it; where guns are concerned I’m a chicken. So when my son announced he signed me up for a shooting class I didn’t exactly jump with joy.  “Come on, Ma,” he beseeched when I balked.  “I told them you write westerns and they agreed to bring their Old West collection.” 

Well, shoot!

The first challenge was finding the place.  It’s hidden somewhere in a canyon in the San Fernando Valley at the end of a very long dirt road.  Upon my arrival I was introduced to Bodie aka Willy Clark. Dressed in authentic cowboy gear he looked like a character right out of a Louis L’Amour book. He didn’t just know weapons he knew the west.  Bodie likes to put history in context.  “Hollywood did us no favor,” he explained. “While cowboys were shooting up Tombstone, Bell was talking on the telephone.”

Bodie and I discussed a tricky scene I’m working on and he gave me some terrific ideas.  The other workshop attendees—all men by the way—got in the act.  I wonder what they’d say if they knew they were helping plot a romance novel?  

Bodie ran down the safety rules and taught us how to load a weapon with black gunpowder cartridges.  What you need to know about gunpowder is that is smells like sulphur and makes a lot of smoke.

Contrary to popular belief poor shooting was the norm in the Old West and it’s easy to see that gunpowder smoke was partly to blame. A gun battle between cowboys and Indians would have created quite a smokescreen.   Some lawmen fared no better in shooting skills than did your average cowpoke.   A self-generated reputation–the deadlier the better– saved many a lawman from dying in the street.  No one was better at exaggerating than Bill Hickok, who described an ambush of three farmers as a shoot-out with nine desperados.  

Few gunslingers carried a notched weapon, probably because they didn’t want to embarrass themselves.  Of course, this didn’t keep Bat Masterson from running a successful business selling “genuine” notched guns during his retirement.

The Real Gun that Won the West

Hint, hint, it was not the Peacemaker. Cody insists it was the 12-gauge double-barrel shotgun (also called a scattergun).  The double barrel means it has two triggers. The shotgun was the most prevalent weapon in the U.S. and every rancher, farmer, wagon train emigrant and cavalryman had one. The shotgun was easy to use and the perfect weapon for everything from shooting game to fighting off Indians.   

The scattering effect of buckshot had its good and bad side.  Buckshot spreads eight inches for every twenty-five feet.  In layman’s terms that means that unless you are close to your target you’ll probably miss.  But it was precisely this spreading effect that made it the weapon of choice for lawmen wishing to control unruly crowds.

A Kick like a Mule

The first time I pulled a shotgun trigger I near fell over backward.  That kick would make any mule proud. The hands you see behind me belong to my son, ready to catch me on my second round. I learned the hard way to hold the butt against my shoulder—hard!  

 After “mastering” the shotgun I moved on to the Colt Peacemaker.  The Colt was popular with lawmen and outlaws alike. Loading a Colt was more involved than loading a shotgun. To keep a round from discharging a loaded chamber by accident you load only “five beans in the wheel”  by loading one, missing one and loading the rest. If you’re heading for a gunfight be sure to load all six beans.  If by chance you’re chased by outlaws while on your horse, hold your gun and reins in your left hand and load with your right.

 The thing you need to know about the peacemaker is that the barrel tends to move upward after you fire.  That’s why Bat Masterson said to aim for the belt buckle and hit ‘em in the chest.  Bat was credited with shooting thirty-one men though in reality he shot only one.  This proves that shooting at belt buckles isn’t as easy as you might think. 

I came away from my lesson without any notches on my belt, but taking a cue from my fisherman husband I can now talk about the target that got away.

How about you? Any notches on your belt?  The best story–true or false–wins a book!

A Vision of Lucy (A Rocky Creek Romance)

Before I get started with my post, I just wanted to share how excited I am to be the newest filly in the corral here at the Junction! I’ve been an active follower for several years, and I know how talented and fun this group of ladies is. I couldn’t be more pleased to find myself in their company on a regular basis.

Now, back to the livery . . . take a close look at the picture below. Can you guess what’s missing?

Women. You’ll find nary a one. That’s because the livery stable was a man’s domain. Females flocked to dry good stores, dress shops, milliners, and drug emporiums but avoided the masculine hub known as the livery. Why? Mostly because of the smell. And the likelihood of stepping in something no lady would want clinging to the sole of her shoe or staining the hem of her skirt.

For a man, however, this was the western version of an English gentleman’s club. A masculine sanctuary, a place to pass the time discussing crops or swapping stories by the potbellied stove. So what if the air was a bit gamey? A little manure never hurt anyone. The only nags were out back in the corral, and they didn’t seem to mind if a fella was of a mind to spit his tobacco juice on the floor or wipe his nose on his sleeve.

But the livery was more than a gathering place for men who wanted to escape their womenfolk for a time. It was a place of business. The liveryman kept prime horseflesh on hand for harness or riding, maintained a respectable selection of carriages and wagons for rent, pitched hay, tallied accounts, and even dealt with colicky critters when the need arose. Travelers stopped by to board their mounts or rent a saddle horse for the day. Young swains coughed up hard-earned coin to impress their gals with romantic country drives in a rented rig. The livery supplied an essential service to the townsfolk.

As I researched livery stables for my debut novel, I came across a fabulous find in one of our local library’s genealogical collections—a transcribed log book from a livery in Bonham, Texas dating back to 1885. Not only did I learn what prices were charged, I also gained insight into the types of services offered. Here is a sampling:

• Horse rental per day – $0.50
• Horse and buggy rental – $1.00
• Carriage and team – $2.00
• Carriage and driver – $4.00
• Buggy to depot – $1.00
• Horse to pasture – $0.50
• Feed – $0.25
• Bucket of oats – $0.50
• Stall rental – $1.50
• Stall plus hay – $2.50
• One month board on horse – $10.00
• Currying horse – $0.10
• Saddling horse – $0.25
• Repairs on carriage – $0.50 to $1.50 or higher depending on extent of repair needed
• Fee for lost horse blanket – $0.75 for regular blanket, $2.00 for double blanket

In addition to accepting cash for payment, this log book also chronicled a variety of barter offerings. Customers were known to pay in corn or cords of wood. One fellow who had accrued a rather large debt paid with a big black sow.

If a man had no goods to offer, he might pay in services like hauling hay in from area farms, working the nightshift at the stable, working as a carriage driver, or painting the livery.

Yet as the 19th century faded into the 20th, and the horse no longer held sway as the primary mode of transportation, what happened to all these livery stables? Did they simply fade away into the yore of yesteryear? Some may have. But many enterprising livery owners adapted successfully to the times and converted their stables and wagon yards into garages for the newfangled horseless carriages that dominated the streets.

So the next time you take you car to the shop, try to picture the mechanic with a handlebar mustache, hat, and boots. Who knows, maybe one of his great-great-grandfathers owned your town livery.

The Loretto Chapel

and The Miraculous Staircase

The Loretto Chapel in Sante Fe, New Mexico was commissioned by Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy

and designed by French architect Antoine Mouly with the help of his son, Projectus,

who were said to have modeled it on the historic Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.

Since the elder Mouly was infirm and going blind at this time,

actual construction of the chapel fell to Mouly’s son Projectus, who did a fine construction job until he himself died.

It is here that the so-called “legend of the miraculous staircase” begins.

When Projectus died, the chapel construction went on until it was discovered that no way had been included in the building plans to access the choir loft.

There was no space for a staircase in the small church.

Legend says that to find a solution to the problem, the Sisters of the Chapel made a novena to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters.

A novena is a prayer repeated on nine successive days, asking to obtain special graces.

On the ninth and final day of prayer, a man appeared at the Chapel with a donkey and a toolbox looking for work.

He told the nuns he would build them a staircase but that he needed total privacy and locked himself in the chapel for three months.

He used a small number of primitive tools including a square, a saw and some warm water

and constructed a spiral staircase entirely of non-native wood.

The Miraculous Staircase ascends twenty feet,

making two complete revolutions up to the choir loft without the use of nails or apparent center support.

It has been surmised that the central spiral of the staircase is narrow enough to serve as a central beam—

and the physics of this are most likely true but this was an incredibly difficult construction method for the times.

There was no attachment unto any wall or pole in the original stairway,

although in 1887 — 10 years after it was built — a railing was added and the outer spiral was fastened to an adjacent pillar.

Then, on the day the mysterious carpenter finished, before he could be paid, he walked into the dessert and was never heard from again.

His identity unknown.

The legend grew that the builder was St. Joseph, the carpenter father of Jesus.

The staircase has 33 steps, the age in years of Jesus when he was crucified.

The miraculous staircase still stands today and the Loretto Chapel is visited by tourists and used for weddings and other special events to this day.

Click on the cover of Deep Trouble to buy on Amazon

http://www.maryconnealy.com/

It was a simple device –nothing more than small sharp-cut loops of metal strung between twisted strands of wire.  And yet, apart from the telegraph and the railroad, no invention played a bigger role in changing the landscape of the American West.  Indian tribes, who detested it, called it the devil’s rope.  Most folks called it by its common name – barbed wire.

Before 1870, America’s Great Plains were sparsely settled with little concern for boundaries.  After the Civil War, things changed.  Ranchers moving out onto the plains needed to fence their property against encroaching settlers.  The railroads needed to keep livestock off their tracks, and farmers needed to keep stray cattle from trampling their crops.  Wood and stone fences were expensive and impractical over long distances.  Thorny hedges took time to grow and didn’t do well under the dry conditions of the west.  Fencing with plain wire strung between posts had been tried, but cattle could simply lean against the fences and push them over.

The first U.S. patent for barbed wire was issued in 1867 to Lucien B. Smith, who is regarded as the inventor.  Joseph F. Glidden received a patent for the modern invention in 1874.  The photo shows a length of Glidden’s original hand-made wire.  He called his invention “The Winner” because it beat out competition from other inventors for the patent.

By the late 1870’s many companies were making and successfully selling the new wire.   Barbed wire fences required nothing more than wire, fence posts, and devices such as staples to hold the wire in place.  They were simple to build and fast to erect.  Large areas of land could be fenced in a relatively short time.  And the painful barbs kept animals from pushing on the fences.

Not everyone was happy about  barbed wire.  While slow moving animals like cattle and sheep were rarely harmed by the fences, a horse racing into the sharp wire could be cruelly injured.  Native American tribes hated the wire because it interfered with their hunting and migrations.  But nobody hated barbed wire more than the stock growers who depended on open range for their vast herds.  One major source of conflict was the “Big Die Up” incident in the 1880’s.  Cattle tended to migrate south in the winter, away from the northern blizzards.  In the terrible winter of 1885 thousands of animals died because they couldn’t find a way around the fences.  Later other cattlemen, especially in Texas, began cutting fences to allow cattle to pass through.  Conflict erupted, with vigilantes joining in, causing chaos and death.  The fence cutting wars ended with the passage of laws that made cutting fences a felony.  Finally, barbed wire put an end to one of the most dramatic periods in American history – the great cattle drives of the late 1800’s.

I have my own memories of  barbed wire.  As a child growing up in a small farming community, I was snagged, jabbed, scratched and caught  more times than I can remember, sneaking through fences to play.  Do you have any barbed wire memories?

Who doesn’t love it when a town or a family is revisited in a sequel? It’s like seeing old friends again or coming home for a stay. It’s always fun to set up a character in a previous book, and then give them their own story. Readers who enjoyed The Preacher’s Wife and asked about a sequel will be happy to know Elisabeth Hart’s story has finally been told in Marrying the Preacher’s Daughter.

Elisabeth’s family moved west to Colorado from back east, and along the way her mother was drowned. Elisabeth had issues getting used to the idea that her father snapped himself up a new wife in Nebraska before they ever reached their destination. But before the end of that story, Josie and Elisabeth came to an understanding , and are close friends when this book begins.

Elisabeth wants a man just like her father. Someone wise and upstanding, a man who lives by God’s Word and is an example to the community. She has high ideals and lofty expectations.

Enter Gabe Taggart, bounty hunter. Now Elisabeth doesn’t know he’s a bounty hunter when she meets him. He’s keeping that under his cowboy hat. But she does know he’s dangerous, because he’s lying shot in their family home after a gunfight—a gunfight she instigated—but she won’t admit to that. Her father is perturbed with her and insists it’s her job to take care of the man, since she got him shot up in the first place, so like the obedient daughter she is, she’s waiting on the irritating man hand and foot. Her charity and good will are soon spread pretty thin however.

Gabe only cares about keeping his secret and creating a home for the sister he placed in a boarding school. She has graduated and wants to come set up house with her big brother. Irene arrives sooner than expected, and she sure isn’t the quiet, studious little girl he remembers. She’s a full-blown suffragette, with contacts in important circles. Between his outrageous sister and his feisty caregiver, his future is not living up to his peaceful expectations. Worse yet—the two become fast friends. What’s a man to do?

This story is filled with gunfire, kisses, and a few good laughs. But it’s also a poignant look into healing for the grieving process and an example of how God responds to faith. I hope you will find a copy and let me know what you think.

I’m giving away autographed  copies to TWO PEOPLE who click through to my trailer on YouTube, LIKE it and leave a comment here to tell me they did so. The traffic should generate interest for the book.

CLICK HERE FOR TRAILER ON YOUTUBE

Thank you for visiting today!

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READ CHAPTER ONE
Marrying the Preacher’s Daughter
by Cheryl St.John
Colorado June, 1876

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If you’re blog hopping today, I’m at Seekerville http://seekerville.blogspot.com/ and

I’m the Spotlight Author at Love Western Romances this month! http://www.lovewesternromances.com/

A Bowie knife is a style of fixed-blade knife first popularized by Colonel James “Jim” Bowie in the early 19th Century.

Much like the owner with whom this blade is synonymous, the “Bowie” knife is shrouded in myths, legends and questionable facts. Even the experts are still arguing over what is truth and what is legend.

Let’s start with what the experts know:  A blacksmith named James Black from Washington, Arkansas, was well-known for his guardless “coffin” knife, meaning the handle is shaped like a coffin and there is no guard to keep the wielders hand from slipping onto the blade.

From here, the truth gets a little murky.

One version of the creation of the famous knife is that Rezin Bowie commissioned the knife from blacksmith Jesse Cleft of Avoyelles Parrish, Louisiana.

Another has Jim’s brother, John, claiming the knife was made by a blacksmith named Snowden.

The favored version of the story is that Jim Bowie went to Black in 1830 with a wooden mock-up of the knife he wanted. Black made that knife and another one with several improvements. When Bowie returned for his knife, Black offered him his choice. Bowie took the improved model.

“It was said that a Bowie had to be sharp enough to use as a razor, heavy enough to use as a hatchet, long enough to use as a sword and broad enough to use as a paddle.”

The historical Bowie knife had a blade of at least 6 inches in length, some reaching 12 inches or more, with a relatively broad blade that was an inch and a half to two inches wide. Bowie knives often had an upper guard that bent forward at an angle (called an S-guard) intended to catch an opponent’s blade or provide protection to the owner’s hand.

The moniker “Bowie Knife” seems to have grown from the account of an attempted murder of Bowie. In Mississippi in 1827, in what became known as the “Sandbar Duel,” Jim Bowie was attacked by three men on the orders of a local sheriff that Bowie had vocally refused to back for re-election. Bowie, using the knife, survived; his attackers did not. Yes, I know this happened before Bowie bought the knife from Black. But keep in mind the historical “Bowie knife” was not a single design, but was a series of knives improved several times by Jim Bowie over the years.

James Black became famous on his own merits; he was and is considered one of the best blade-makers of that time period. Black’s knives were copied by cutlers in Sheffield, England, and sold in America as the “Arkansas Toothpick.”

“The term Arkansas toothpick became synonymous with “bowie knife” for most of the population [of the United States]. Sheffield cutlers thought the addition of this term in particular added value to the knives they made to sell in the United States…” http://www.historicarkansas.org/collections/knives.aspx?id=54

Black’s knives were known to be exceedingly tough, yet flexible, and his technique has not been duplicated. Black kept his technique secret and did all of his work behind a leather curtain. Many claim that Black rediscovered the secret of producing true Damascus steel. [An interesting process, but I’m going to let you research that one on your own. If you want to see some beautiful knives, go to http://www.mountainhollow.net/bowieknives2.htm]

The Bowie knife became the most famous blade in the states, perhaps in the world, following The Alamo. But, as is the way of most things, by the end of the Civil War, the knife gave way to the bayonet, rifle and revolvers for self-defense.

Hollywood launched something of a revival of the knife’s popularity when, in the 1950s, Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie were featured in books and movies.

Here’s some of the links I discovered, if you want to learn more:

http://www.historicarkansas.org/knife_gallery/

http://www.historicarkansas.org/collections/knives.aspx?id=153

http://www.historicarkansas.org/jamesblackrevisited/

I thought it’d be fun to look at some of the rules that a traveler would have to abide by when riding on a stagecoach in the old west.  I’ve planned on writing a blog about this for a while, but knew I had to do research … which ended up easier than I thought.

Finding a ton of resources, to my surprise, I discovered all of it referred back to one main piece of information put out by the famous stagecoach line, Wells Fargo.  I’m not correcting terminology, including misspellings and punctuation, in order to preserve history.

WELLS FARGO RULES FOR RIDING THE STAGECOACH

Adherence to the Following Rules Will Insure a Pleasant Trip for All

1. Abstinence from liquor is requested, but if you must drink, share the bottle. To do otherwise makes you appear selfish and unneighborly.
2. If ladies are present, gentlemen are urged to forego smoking cigars and pipes as the odor of same is repugnant to the Gentle Sex. Chewing tobacco is permitted, but spit WITH the wind, not against it.
3. Gentlemen must refrain from the use of rough language in the presence of ladies and children.
4. Buffalo robes are provided for your comfort during cold weather. Hogging robes will not be tolerated and the offender will be made to ride with the driver.
5. Don’t snore loudly while sleeping or use your fellow passenger’s shoulder for a pillow; he or she may not understand and friction may result.
6. Firearms may be kept on your person for use in emergencies. Do not fire them for pleasure or shoot at wild animals as the sound riles the horses.
7. In the event of runaway horses, remain calm. Leaping from the coach in panic will leave you injured, at the mercy of the elements, hostile Indians and hungry wolves.
8. Forbidden topics of discussion are stagecoach robberies and Indian uprisings.
9. Gents guilty of unchivalrous behavior toward lady passengers will be put off the stage. It’s a long walk back. A word to the wise is sufficient.

My second surprise was to learn that the main piece of research I use the most on stagecoach etiquette can be attributed to the Omaha Herald 1877, so I’d love to share that with you, too.

• The best seat inside a stagecoach is the one next to the driver. You will have to ride with back to the horses, which with some people produces an illness not unlike seasickness, but in a long journey this will wear off, and you will get more rest with less than half the bumps and jars than on any other seat.. [When anyone] who traveled thousands of miles on coaches offers, through sympathy, to exchange his back or middle seat with you, don’t do it.
• Bathe your feet before starting in cold weather and wear loose overshoes and gloves two or three sizes too large.
• When the driver asks you to get off and walk, do it without grumbling. He will not request it unless absolutely necessary.
• If a team runs away, sit still and take your chances; if you jump, nine times out of ten you will be hurt.
• In very cold weather abstain entirely from liquor while on the road; a man will freeze twice as quick while under its influence.
• Don’t growl at food at stations; stage companies generally provide the best they can get.
• Don’t keep the stage waiting; many a virtuous man has lost his character by so doing.
• Don’t smoke a strong pipe inside especially early in the morning; spit on the leeward side of the coach.
• If you have anything to take in a bottle, pass it around; a man who drinks by himself in such a case is lost to all human feeling.
• Provide stimulants before starting; ranch whiskey is not always nectar.
• Be sure and take two heavy blankets with you; you will need them.
• Don’t swear, nor lop over onto your neighbor when sleeping.
• Don’t ask how far it is to the next station until you get there.
• Take small change to pay expenses.
• Never attempt to fire a gun or pistol while on the road; it may frighten the team and the careless handling and cocking of the weapon makes nervous people nervous.
• Don’t discuss politics or religion, nor point out places on the road where horrible murders have been committed, if delicate women are among the passengers.
• Don’t linger too long at the pewter washbasin at the station.
• Don’t grease your hair before starting or dust will stick there in sufficient quantities to make a respectable “tater” patch.
• Tie a silk handkerchief around your neck to keep out dust and prevent sunburns..
• Don’t imagine for a moment you are going on a picnic; expect annoyance, discomfort and some hardships. 

What are some of your favorite rules?  I really like: “If you have anything to take in a bottle, pass it around; a man who drinks by himself in such a case is lost to all human feeling.”   So, tell me yours.

Fellow Filly, Linda Broday and I visited Fort Concho in San Angelo, Texas, over this last weekend.  Here are some of the Buffalo Soldiers with a Wells Fargo Stagecoach!