History – General

STEPHEN BLY: WHY SHE LIKES READIN’ A GOOD OLE WESTERN

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Steven Bly“Perhaps more than any other genre, westerns require adherence to some fairly strict guidelines. Writing in this genre requires knowledge of its expectations,” says R. L. Coffield in her article, “Sexuality and Cursing in the Western.”

This applies especially to classic westerns.

 

 

 

          Most classic western fans presume a certain code. No explicit scenes. Swearing minimal or nonexistent. But there can be lots of romance amidst the shootin’ and dyin’. Character development is a must. (Or setting development, such as in a classic Zane Grey.) Good Creede of Old Montana by Steven Blytriumphs over evil. That’s why classic westerns attract lots of female readers.

          In my newest western Creede of Old Montana (to be released October 2009), protagonist Avery John Creede rides into Ft. Benton, Montana, looking for old army pals. Instead, he stumbles into a running gun fight with a notorious outlaw and two women determined to distract him, each for their own reasons. Creede seems at first to either be very naïve with the ladies, or one smooth cowboy. Whichever, the results prove to be the same.

There’s lots of the usual head banging in the book, and it’s not all done by the males.

time-mag-cover-cowboy-heroes1“With the quickness and velocity of a mother killing a snake with a hoe, Sunny slammed the barrel of the revolver into the back of the outlaw’s head. He crumpled to the sand.”

In one chapter I put Avery John Creede on the trail with this same Sunny (a.k.a. Mary Jane Cutler), and male/female sparks happen…some humorous, some “Aha!” But I do keep a close eye on them. Trust me.

A note about this scene, that also has to do with genre expectations: On the trail ride, even though Sunny’s a tough gal in lots of ways, she rides sidesaddle. That’s not just because she’s wearing a dress. It was thought to be scandalous beyond civilized reason for females to straddle a horse in the 1800s. And much later into the 1900s. She has no intention of breaking that sanction. And I, as the author, try very hard to stick with historical cultural facts. That’s one reason the movie, Shane, rankles me. In an otherwise excellent western, why in the world did the wardrobe people clothe Jean Arthur in pants? U.S. women, even ranch gals, didn’t start wearing slacks of any sort until WWII with the advent of Rosie the Riveter and the influence of the working gal.

That’s what it’s all about for the reader…knowing what to expect when they pick up another title by an author they’ve come to know and enjoy. I try to stay with the expectations…if I don’t, I hear about it…whether I’ve crossed a line in this reader’s mind in language choice, a suggestive taboo, or getting the details right. 
Leave a comment to get your name in the drawing for a copy of Stephen’s book Creede of Old Montana. 

On the trail,

          Steve

           http://www.BlyBooks.com

Follow the Red Brick Road by Charlene Sands

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dsc01018I’m a lover of American history and I don’t apologize for thinking we live in the most wonderful country in the world!  Even as a child, I was fascinated by our founding fathers and what they had accomplished. Fascinated by the drive and determination of a people who wanted freedom from oppression.  Fascinated in the brilliance of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights for our countrymen.   Recently, and along with dear friends who were also celebrating a big anniversary, we traveled to Boston to board a cruise ship, but we planned enough time to see the sights first and there were many!

The Freedom Trail is the red brick road you follow, a walking tour that takes you from one historic site to another all throughout the city.  It’s so neat to see this pattern of bricks in all the sidewalks on the trail.  

I must admit, all of the places I’ve traveled so far, Boston is my favorite city. We stayed in a lovely hotel on the Charles River, just a few steps from the Naval Ship yard and visited the U.S.S. Constitution museum.  It’s one of the first stops on the Freedom Trail  We learned about the ship they call, “Old Ironsides”  because the sides of the ship were made of  live oak, found only on the East coast and is known for its hard surface.  When fired upon, the cannonballs literally bounced off, giving the impression of being made of iron.   The USS Constitution is 33 and 0, never having lost a battle.  It’s the oldest floating battleship in the world, having been commissioned by George Washington in 1797.

I didn’t know that if it’s on a ship it’s called a gun and if it’s on the ground, it’s called a cannon.  We were duly corrected, when we asked about the “cannons.”   Young boys had the danerous  job of delivering the gun powder to the 12 men needed to set off one gun. Those boys were called “gun monkeys.”   

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We visited Paul Revere’s house, a small home of two stories, but we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside.  The house is amazingly preserved and was said to have had over 200 residents, as it became a boardinghouse at one time.    I got goose bumps when I walked inside, imagining him being there with his family.  It was said he was good-looking man who had 2 wives and 16 children in his lifetime.    He was an bellmaker and one of his bells sits on his property now.   A bit of trivia:  The Samuel Adams beer, depicts a man who we believe is Sam Adams, but is, in fact, Paul Revere.   Dear Samuedsc00997l Adams, apparently wasn’t pleasing to the eye.dsc01009

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 The Old North Church is on the Freedom Trail – the oldest church in Boston constructed in 1723 and it has the tallest steeple in the city.  It was here that Robert Newman signaled the approach of the British with the alert with lanterns, “One if by land, two if by sea.” 

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The Old State Meeting House was the Puritan House of Worship built in 1729, the site of the Boston Tea Party in 1773 with Samuel Adams leading the charge, dumping 3 shiploads of tea into the Boston Harbor. 

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Trinity Church in Copley Square built in 1723 burned in the Great Boston Fire in 1872 and was rebuilt by 1877.   I peered inside this church and it was stunning, the artwork, stained glass and amazing architecture was something I wished we had time to explore.  Directly across the street is the John Hancock Tower, constructed in the early 2000’s and many complained that the tall insurance tower would ruin the beauty of the church, so it was constructed with reflective glass.   Look at the neat reflection of the church in those windows. 

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What would a trip to Boston be without  a visit to the Cheers Bar where everybody knows your name?   Built in 1895 and across the street from Boston Commons and the Public Gardens, we entered this underground bar, just to say we did!!   (my hubby Don, and dear friends from grammar school, Mary and Richard)

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And of course, being huge baseball fans, we had to tour Fenway Park!  (note: not on the Freedom Trail, but lots of history there too)scan0023

 

 

 

 

 

Have you visited Boston or any city on the east coast that has sparked your interest in our history?   Do you love to learn about our nation’s beginnings as much as I do?  Do you get goose bumps (like I do) when you stand on the very places that made history?  If you could travel to any place in America to learn more about our history, where would that be? 

Texan’s Wedding-Night Wager is on sale now – #2 on Borders/Waldenbooks bestseller list for series romance.  I hope you get a chance to read it. 

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Armadillos – coming soon to a place near you?

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I was doing some research the other day… 

Hmmm – it seems that most of my posts open this way.  I hope you all don’t mind that I use my research efforts as fodder for this blog.  Anyway, to continue, I wanted to insert an ‘armadillo incident’ in my current work in progress, which is set in northeast Texas in 1894.  Today armadillos can be found throughout much of the state (the exception being the Trans-Pecos region).   But what kind of range did they have in 1894?.  So I started digging around for information, and along the way I discovered some interesting facts about the strange looking critters and their migration into the US. 

First off, I assume most of you know what an armadillo looks like (see the pictures included here if you don’t) but for those of you who have never actually encountered a real life armadillo face-to-face, here are some statistics:  The common name for the armadillo found in the United States is the Nine-banded Armadillo.  The adult animal is about the size of a terrier, its upper body is encased in a bony carapace with large shields on its shoulders and rump, with nine bands in between (thus the name).  Average size is 2.5 feet in length and about 13.5 lbs in weight.  They have 30-32 peg-like teeth and strong claws that aid in their burrowing.

What my research uncovered was that the armadillo didn’t make an appearance in the US until after 1850.  After that date, however, the armadillo incursion took place with amazing rapidity.  In fact, the magnitude of their annual range expansion is almost ten times faster than the average rate expected for mammals.

Learning this tidbit, I immediately began to wonder what changed at about the 1850 mark.  Digging deeper I discovered that there were three major roadblocks that initially held the armadillos back. 

  • The first of these was the Rio Grande River.  Even though armadillos are good swimmers, the Rio Grande is a formidable waterway and very few armadillos would attempt such a crossing, and few of those who did survived the conditions on the other side.  Which leads to the second factor, which was
  • Predators.  Not only would the  wolves and panthers of Northern Mexico and South Texas have kept the population at bay, but man hunted them as well since armadillos were highly prized for their meat. (Still are – hubby informs me that he has eaten armadillo and found it quite tasty).  
  • And lastly there was the matter of habitat.  While armadillos can and do survive in a number of different settings and environments, their dwelling of preference is brushy or forested terrain.  Prior to 1850, south Texas experienced annual fires (both natural and man made) that left the area covered in large part by prairie grass.

All of these factors changed when American settlers began colonizing Texas in the later half of the nineteenth century. Armadillos were able to take advantage of the increase in human traffic across the Rio Grande, to find opportunities for safer travel themselves.  In fact, it’s likely that many were deliberately brought across as a potential food source.  And the presence of humans also served to decrease the population of the natural predators such as the above mentioned wolves and panthers.  And the halting of the yearly burn-offs allowed mesquite brush to gain a foothold in the open grasslands, providing a more armadillo-friendly habitat.  The subsequent development of this territory for pasture and crop use gave the armadillo population an additional leg up as it made the land an even more suitable environment for their habitation.

So that explains how they came to immigrate to this country.  But what factors played into their rapid expansion once they made it to the US?  By nature, armadillos normally don’t stray far from the area of their birth – unless the population is high.  It seems armadillos have a high reproductive rate, with females regularly producing their young in sets of identical quadruplets.   As favorable conditions allowed their numbers to increase, they began to range farther from home.  And with life spans up to twenty years, it only took a small number of the animals to establish stable populations in new territories.

Of course, man helped speed things up along the way.  Armadillos managed to stow away on railcars that were used to transport of cattle from Texas to other states.   They were also carried to other locations as curiosities and then later escaped or were released in the wild.  For example, the Florida population had its genesis in 1924 when armadillos were set loose from a small zoo during a storm, and their foothold was further strengthened when several more escaped from a traveling circus in 1936.

Another interesting fact I learned about armadillos is how they cross a body of water .  Not surprisingly, because of their heavy shell, they tend to sink.  When crossing a very narrow body of water, like a ditch or small stream, the armadillo will simply walk across the bottom underwater – in fact it can hold its breath for up to six minutes.  When faced with a wider body of water, however, the armadillo has the ability to ingest air, enough, in fact, to inflate its stomach and intestines to twice their normal size.  This increases the animal’s buoyancy, allowing it to swim across.  Once it reaches land again, it will usually take several hours for the animal to release all of this extra air from its body.  The mechanism armadillos employ to accomplish this is still something of a mystery to scientists, but it appears to be a voluntary rather than autonomic response.

Oh, and as for my story, I did discover that armadillos became common in east Texas at around the 1900 mark.  Which means, it is probably safe to assume that a few of them had reached that area by 1894.  Or at least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it…

Pamela Nowak ~ Choices

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pam-nowak-picI want to thank Petticoats and Pistols for inviting me and giving me the opportunity to share with all of you. This is a favorite site of mine and blogging with you here is beyond exciting!

This week, my second novel, Choices, was released. Set at Fort Randall, Dakota Territory in 1876, it tells the story of a rebellious officer’s daughter, an honorable enlisted man, and a forbidden relationship.  

Twenty odd years ago, when my late husband, Tim, and I were first married, we shared an avid interest in living history. He was an archaeologist, I was a history teacher, and we were both passionate about the Amephoto-4rican West. He created the persona of a soldier-a private-and I was a governess. Both of us spent scores of hours researching the period:  the army, etiquette and social rules, nineteenth century dress; and how our characters fit within it. At the same time, Tim was also the project manager of the Fort Randall Archaeological Project. We lived and breathed Fort Randall for over two years. 

Choices flowed out of that. The facts were swimming around in my head, mingling constantly into different storylines (that happens a lot with facts in my head). They begged for characters to play them out and for the words to be written down. 

The nineteenth cfort_randall_military_postentury army had rigid sets of rules for being a soldier and complex social codes for how officers, enlisted men, and their women were permitted (or not permitted) to interact. I was amazed at how stratified society was at these western outposts and at how thoroughly officer’s wives observed those social norms. Memoirs, scholarly studies, and the notations left by army personnel all speak to the separation of classes—as defined by rank. 

But even more amazing were the exceptions. Though officers’ wives were socially superior to enlisted men’s wives, they were not officially recognized by the army. In fact, they were considered camp followers, in the same category as prostitutes who might do business just off the military reservation (their places of business were nicknamed “hog ranches”) and were allowed only at the sufferance of the commanding officer. Laundresses, who were often wives of enlisted men, were offic17-in-general-miles-marching-and-chowder-society-reenactmential civilian contractors with corresponding army regulations detailing their rights to be there.  

On most posts, lifestyles of the enlisted and officer classes were narrowly defined and very separate. A few diaries and memoirs offer glimpses into occasional relaxation of those barriers, most often for an all-post holiday celebration or when there was an unusual crisis. 

I wanted to share all this but also to present a story about choices, about how we all choose who we are going to be in terms of choices-coverrelationships with others. Miriam, my heroine, confronts rules and regulations head-on and resists them every step of the way while she seeks ways to cross the lines. I introduced her rigid and domineering mother, Harriet, to bring pressure on her to toe the line and to personify the exclusionary nature of society. Lt. Wood is representative of expectations. Mixed in is the culture of the army, Harriet’s addiction to laudanum, Jake’s honor, the laundress’s common-sense outlook on life, and Major Longstreet’s predicament of his own making. 

I hope you will find the story and fun to read as I found it to write and that my characters reveal the subtleties involved in the choices that face us all. 

I’ve enjoyed our time together. Please visit me on my website at www.pamelanowak.com.

To celebrate the release of Choices, Pam will be giving a copy to one of today’s blog participants. 

Perote Prison: Something To Be Buried In

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Sometimes research can turn up a gem of information that can send your story in a different direction. When writing my second novel, Touched by Love, I needed a place for the heroine’s kidnapped brother to be taken. I knew the general area where I needed him to be held, just not a specific location. And of course, it had to be historically accurate for the time period in which my story was set.

I began searching the internet for prisons used by the Mexican Army in the 1800s and found Perote Prison. The location was ideal, 600 miles into Mexico, and several hundred Texans had been incarcerated within its walls.

perote-prison-bridge-over-moatThe Castle of San Carlos (photo to the left *) was built by the Viceroy of Mexico in the late 16th century, 7000 feet up the mountains overlooking the port of Veracruz. It was designed as an ammunition storage facility and a military training school, and as a second line of defense for Veracruz. Both the Spanish and Mexican armies used the immense fortress as a prison. Texans captured during three disastrous expeditions against Mexico were imprisoned and died here.

The Aztecs called the place pinahuizapan, or “something-to-be-buried-in.” Situated high in thmountains-over-veracruze mountains, at an altitude of 7000 feet, the castle made an ideal prison. The stone and masonry walls were twelve feet high and six feet thick. The entire structure was surrounded by a wide, deep moat spanned by a single drawbridge. Add to that the weather in this high desert, and it must have seemed like the most inhospitable place on earth to those unfortunate enough to be there.

When I discovered Perote Prison, I knew it had to make an appearance in the book. I ended up writing a prologue that forced the hero to ride to this remote prison to correct a terrible mistake and save a man’s life at the possible cost of his own. The added scenes demonstrated the hero’s sense of honor and responsibility, adding depth to his character and making him more redeemable in the eyes of the reader.

Interesting, isn’t it, how a gem of information can send you off in a different direction and make your characters—and your story—better?

* J. J. McGrath & Walace Hawkins, “Perote Fort- Where Texans Were Imprisoned”, Volume 48, Number 3, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online

 

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www.tracygarrett.com

The Legations of The Republic of Texas

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In honor of those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, and all those who fight every day for our freedoms. Never take them for granted.

 

From the day I started researching my first manuscript set in Texas, I’ve been fascinated by the history of Texas. Much has been said about the Republic of Texas – but did you know it only existed for ten years?

republic-of-texas-sealThe Republic of Texas was a sovereign nation that existed from 1836 to 1846. The first Congress of the Republic of Texas convened in October 1836 at what is now West Columbia. Stephen F. Austin, referred to as the “Father of Texas,” served as Secretary of State for the new Republic for only two months before his death on December 27, 1836.

In 1836, five sites served as temporary capitals of Texas: Washington-on-the-Brazos, Harrisburg, Galvestofirst-republic-texas-flagn, Velasco and Columbia before President Sam Houston moved the capital to Houston in 1837. In 1839, the capital was moved again, this time by President Mirabeau B. Lamar, to the new town of Austin, where it remains today. And during the time of the Republic, Texas had embassies.

Technically they were Legations, not embassies, since Texas was a Republic, not a recognized country. There were Legations of the Republic of Texas in London, Paris and Washington D.C., serving to improve diplomatic ties–and to beg for loans.

texas-legation_paris_placevendomeThe Legation in France was housed at 1 Place Vendome 75001, rue de la Paix, Paris, where the famous Vendome Column, was erected in 1810, torn down in 1871, and rebuilt, with Napolean again depicted as Ctexas-legation_london_plaqueaesar, three years later. There’s a plaque there, showing its location.

The London Legation building was at 3 St. James Street, near Buckingham Palace. The building now houses Berry Brothers Wine Merchants, with a plaque recognizing its former tenants.

And I didn’t find an address for the Legation in Washington D.C., but I’ll keep looking–because it’ll drive me nuts not knowing!

The Legations weren’t needed for long. On February 28, 1845, the U.S. Congress passed a bill that would authorize the annextx-flagation of the Republic of Texas. On October 13, 1845 a large majority of voters in the Republic approved it. and Texas bypassed the territorial phase and became a U.S. state on December 29, 1845.

A lot happened in those ten years – enough for more books than I could write in a lifetime. But I’m going to try.

Victoria Bylin: My Modern Day Conestoga Wagon

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Vicki LogoIn a few more weeks, my husband and I will be leaving our home of ten years here in northern Virginia and moving to Lexington, Kentucky.  My in-laws live there, and my youngest son goes to UK (University of Kentucky). We’re stoked!  We’re also putting all our belongings in a “pod.”  Have you seen those onsite storage containers?  I don’t mean to do an advertisement here, but the company we’re using is “Personal On Demand Storage,” aka PODS.   You’ve probably seen them.

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This thing is huge.  We’re also in the middle of renovating our house. It’s a mess, so we joked about living in the Pod. A couple of cots and we’d be set . . . which got me thinking about pioneers, covered wagons, leaving home, and deciding what to do take.

I thought it would be fun to do a few comparisons.  Not all covered wagons were conestoga-smithsonian1Conestogas, but the Conestogas were the biggest. Just how big was a Conestoga wagon?   How much could it hold?  

Our Pod dimensions are 16 x 8 x 8, for a total of 6,785 cubic feet.  We got the biggest one. Conestogas came in different sizes, but the average one was nowhere close to the Pod size.  The wagon beds were 16 feet long, 4 feet deep and 4 feet wide and shaped like a boat.  That’s about 256 cubic feet of space.  By the way, Wikipedia gives much bigger dimensions for the Conestoga. (conestoga-wagon-bw24 x 11 x 4).  That has to be measuring from the ground up, and the length of the conveyance with the harness. 

In their heyday Conestogas were referred to as “the inland ship of commerce.”  They were like semi-trucks back in the early nineteenth century.  Each wagon had a tool box for repairs, which were frequent with the rutted roads and rough terrain. We picture them in long lines headed west, but they were first used in the mid 18th century in the Appalachia Valley.  

Another interesting link to modern times is the left-sided drive design.  Drivers walked or rode on the left side of the wagon.  They’d use their right hand to steer with the reins, and operate the brake with their left hand. Have you ever wondered why American cars have left sided steering and European cars don’t?  It goes back to the Conestoga.

Conestoga isn’t a generic term for “covered wagon.”  Conestogas have a specific design, i.e., the boat shape, and they were first made in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and used to haul produce to Philadelphia.  The earliest reference to a “Conestoga” was in 1711.

How did it gets name?  The wagons got their name from the Conestoga Valley in Pennysylvia where they originated.

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How much could a Conestoga hold in terms of weight? A lot!  Wikipedia says it could hold 12,000 lbs. and was pulled by six horses.  I couldn’t find the weigh limit for PODS, but this is a picture of the device used to lift it on to the truck. “Podzilla” fits, don’t you think.

My husband guess-timates he loaded 4,000 lbs. of stuff. I jokingly said, “I bet 500 lbs. of that was books.”  He gave me a rather dry look and said it was more like a thousand pounds. Bless his good heart and strong back!  He didn’t complain once about the 20 boxes of paperbacks, research books and back list titles. 

 

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Your turn! Have you moved using a POD?  Maybe you’ve rented a U-Haul and done the toting and lugging yourself.  Any military folks who’ve moved every two years?

What possessions do you take extra care of when you wrap and pack? And if you had to pack a Conestoga instead of a Pod, what would you take and what would you leave behind?

 

America is a mobile society and it has been from the very beginning.  We’ve gone from Conestogas to Pods, but the spirit of adventure is the same.  

Mountain Meadows Massacre

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lees_cabin_ferryOne of the standard topics at Petticoats & Pistols are tidbits of history we find in the course of doing  research for our books.

I know I usually do comedy, but this isn’t funny. It was fascinating though. I’d never heard of such a thing. I was researching the Grand Canyon for a book I may or may not write and I came across Lee’s Ferry.

In 1871 Mormon settler John D. Lee was directed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to establish a ferry on the Colorado River. With financing supplied by the church, Lee built the ferry in 1871–1872 near a site with a natural slope from the cliffs to the riverbank, allowing safe crossing over the Colorado River in otherwise impassable terrain.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Lee’s Ferry was the only crossing of the Colorado River by ferry between Moab, Utah and Needles, California; it was heavily used by travelers John D. Leebetween Utah and Arizona. that sepia toned picture is an actual photo of Lee’s Cabin and the ferry behind it.

Since Lee traveled frequently, the ferry was managed primarily by his wife, Emma Lee.

Okay, remember that fact. The ONLY crossing of the Colorado River, I mapquested it…for FIVE HUNDRED MILES. This is a pretty firm grip on people trying to pass through the area.

Now we go to something that happened 14 years earlier. John Lee was a personal friend of Joseph Smith and served on a Mormon group called Council of 50 with Smith and Brigham Young. The point here is, Lee was a big shot in the church, very connected. John D. Lee is the picture on the right.

Lee had nineteen wives, eleven of whom left him. We can talk about that if you want. I’m surprised a woman was allowed to leave her husband back then.

grand-canyonHere’s what I found that was so weird and fascinating. I’d never heard of it before. In 1857, Lee lead a mass slaughter of the Fancher-Baker emigrant wagon train in what became known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre. All of the party except for seventeen children under eight years old—about 120 men, women, and children—were killed. After the massacre, the corpses of the victims were left decomposing for two years on the open plain, and the surviving children—deemed too young to remember what had happened, were distributed to local Mormon families.

The Arkansas emigrants were traveling to California shortly before the Utah War started. Mormon leaders had been mustering militia throughout Utah Territory to fight the United States Army, which was sent to Utah to restore US authority in the territory.

Utah War? Has anyone heard of this? The Utah War, also known as the Mormon Rebellion was an armed dispute between Mormon settlers in Utah Territory and the United States federal government. The confrontation lasted from May 1857 until July 1858. While it had mainly non-Mormon civilian casualties, the “war” had no pitched battles and was ultimately resolved through negotiation.

I also found a reference to President Buchanan starting the war, in effect declaring war on Mormons, to drown out the rumblings of abolitionists.

Lee conspired to lead militiamen disguised as Native Americans with a few Paiute Indians also in the group. The largely unarmed emigrants fought back and a siege ensued. When the Mormons discovered that they had been identified as the attacking force Lee told the battle-weary emigrants that he had negotiated a truce with the Paiutes, whereby they could be escorted safely the 36 miles back to Cedar City under Mormon protection in exchange for turning all of their livestock and supplies over to the Native Americans. The emigrants were led out of their fortification. The Mormon militiamen turned and executed them

There was an investigation into this event but it wasn’t finished when the Civil War broke out and John D. Lee wasn’t prosecuted and went to take his place as the operator of Lee’s Ferry. The massacre was looked into several times and federal marshals suspected Lee’s involvement but could never prove it. Finally, nearly twenty years later, he was arrested, tried and convicted and executed by firing squad on March 23, 1877.

I read ten different speculative explanations for why the massacre happened. Yes, there was a turf battle between people crossing Utah and the Mormons, hello West Side Story. Yes there was deceit blaming this on Indians, hello racism. But the more I read the more is seemed to really boil down to robbery. The attackers wanted the cattle and supplies on that wagon train.

 Again, have any of you ever heard of this? I never have. The modern world seems to be in such a mess sometimes, but we probably haven’t invented much new in the way of evil. 

The Ice Man Cometh…

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Hi y’all.  Happy Labor Day!  I hope you’re able to take advantage of the holiday to kick back and do something relaxing or fun or, better yet, both!

My latest project had a deadline of Sept. 1st and after a number of very late nights getting it polished up and ready to send in I’m kicking back a bit myself before I dive into the next project.

But on to the current post.  I was recently doing a bit of research to see if it would be possible for someone in Texas in 1890 to have access to ice in the middle of summer.   I knew, of course, that in the northern parts of the country, folks would harvest large blocks ice-harvestof ice in the winter and store them away underground or in some other manner that would ensure they would have ice available for most of the year.  But here in the south it is rare that the ponds and lakes freeze over, even during the coldest parts of the year.

So, I started digging around for info, and in the process I discovered a few interesting little tidbits.  Though some pioneering efforts into artificial ice manufacturing were already in place in the first half of the nineteenth century, the application was very limited and “natural ice” was still the most common source.

Before the Civil War “natural ice” was shipped from points north to the south via rail and ship.  In fact, ice from New York was shipped as far away as India.  (Who would have thought ice would survive a trip like that?)

The change from the use of natural ice to that of manufactured ice was slow in coming.  Many folks distrusted ice created in the crude factories, believing natural ice was healthier and cleaner (despite the questionable sanitary conditions of the water sources and collection procedures).  The push to accept artificial ice was ultimately accelerated by those in the south who grew tired of having to rely on the north for their supplies.  This grew more pronounced with the advent of the Civil War, when the south was almost entirely cut off from their ice suppliers.  It was at this time that enterprising and inventive men stepped forward to develop alternatives.

Texas and Louisiana, it appears, played a large role in the early work here in the United States relating to the development of commercial ice manufacturing. 

In 1865 Daniel Livingston Holden made several improvements on the Carre absorption machine, a device patented in France, and installed it in San Antonio.  Within two years three of the eight ice manufacturing companies in the US were located in San Antonio

In 1868 the Louisiana Ice Manufacturing Company of New Orleans opened the very first large scale artificial ice manufacturing facility – a plant with a sixty ton capacity.

Charles Zilker, who moved to Austin, TX from Indiana was another early entrepreneur in the ice-making arena.  In 1884, after working in and operating ice plants for a number of years, Zilker built his own plant and made a number of design improvements.  He established his first plants in Austin and San Antonio.  Later he constructed facilities in any area where he could find a sufficient supply of cooling water for the compressors and enough people to allow him to turn a profit.  By 1928 he owned plants raging from Texas to Atlanta to Pittsburg.  He eventually sold these for $1 million.

By 1900 there were over 760 ice plants in the US.  Texas was home to 77 of these, the most of any state in the union.  Beginning in the 1920s there was a gradual decline in commercial ice plants with the greater use of home refrigerators.

So there you have it – a short history of the ice industry in the United States.  Wherever and however you’re spending this Labor Day, when you raise those glasses of iced tea or soda, you can thank those enterprising fellows in Texas for helping to develop and improve on the technology that brought those nice cubes of ice to your glass.

The Hat Makes The Man

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As the old cowboy saying goes, ‘It’s the last thing you take off and the first thing that is noticed.’humphreybogart_fedora

Top hats, derbys, tams, fedoras, berets, bowlers – hats do more than cover a man’s head. They make a statement about the wearer.

If I say Bogart, can you see him, fedora pulled down low, collar turned up?

charlie-chaplin_bowlerOr Charlie Chaplin in his bowler?

How about President Abraham Lincoln?abraham-lincoln-top-hat

sean-connery_panamaOr Sean Connery in his Panama?

Hats say a lot about the personality of the man – and some, like President Lincoln’s black stovepipe hat, will be forever linked with the man who wore it.

I believe the most recognizable type of hat, hands down, is the cowboy hat.

Did you see John Wayne in The Quiet Man and wonder where the heck his Stetson was?john-wayne_the-quiet-man

john-wayne_stetsonThere, that’s better.

How about the hat Clint Eastwood wore in Pale Rider? clint-eastwood_pale-rider

John Stetson was the creator of what we think of today as the cowboy hat. The son of a master hatter, John made his first cowboy hat as a demonstration to his buddies about making felt from fur. The wide-brimmed hat was so useful in keeping off the sun and rain, his companions wanted one of their own. And an empire was born.

Stetsonboss-of-the-plains-hat_real started his company in 1865. By 1866, the “Hat of the West” or “Boss of the Plains” set the John B. Stetson Company on the path to becoming the most famous hat in the world. Originally sold in one grade (2 ounce feldudes-in-boss-of-the-plainst) and one color (natural), that original Stetson hat sold for five dollars. The equivalent hat today would cost close to $1,000.

Check out these two Montana dudes (1885) in their brand new Stetson ‘Boss of the Plains.’ The guy on the left is wearing Levi’s.

 

Made of a blend of rabbit, wild hare and beaver fur, today’s Stetson sets the mark for cowboy hats. You can get your Stetson in felt or straw, black, white, grey, tan; choose your style, for casual or dress, for outside wear or for going to church.

If you want to see how these famous hats are made, visit StetsonHats.com and click on the “The Making of a Stetson Hat” from the list on the left.

Stetson isn’t the only hat maker in the U.S. In Dallas in 1927, the Byer-Rolnick company began making the Resistol hats, so named because they were made to “resist all weather.”

But Stetson is the name most associated with the west.

Here’s some eye-candy, just because.

ed-harris_appaloosa     dean_martin_rio_bravo_1959   kenny-chesney

garth-brooks   christian-bale

russell-crowe   george-strait   tim-mcgraw

 

“Even after the wild aspect of the West was somewhat tamed, the cowboy hat never really lost its ability to lend that reckless and rugged aura to its wearer.”

 

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