When have you picked up a western romance book to read that didn’t have some kind of law enforcement hero? I’ve noticed that an overwhelming number of stories feature marshals, sheriffs, Texas or Arizona Rangers, bounty hunters, and Pinkerton agents. And little wonder, because those occupations tend to breed larger than life heroes. Not that I’m saying the ordinary man can’t be a memorable hero. Heroes spring to life wherever there are people—the man who struggles to provide for his family, the rancher who’s trying to hold onto a piece of land by his fingernails—any man or woman who faces long odds and certain loss, yet overcomes. A hero is someone who gives his all for a belief in justice and right, knowing full well he might lose, and plunges ahead anyway.  He has unwavering conviction that he can make a difference. And he’s someone people respect above all else. 

In the settlement of the West, sometimes law-enforcers were few and far between. Circumstances bred lawless men who ran roughshod over the weak. Oftentimes, the ordinary citizen took it upon himself to protect and defend. Ordinary people with grit and determination filled the gaps and helped carve out a land free of outlaws and greedy land barons. I’ve put together a list of the most written about heroes. I wish I’d known some of these facts when I wrote my first three books which featured a bounty hunter hero, a Texas Ranger, and an ex-Confederate spy. Almost all my books have a sheriff or marshal in them and at times I used the two professions interchangeably. <groan> I didn’t exactly know the distinction between them. Until now. 

U.S. Marshals — the first federal organization to come into being.  George Washington and the Continental Congress created the service in 1789. Marshals are federally appointed, not elected, and they served a certain territory and still do today. Their authority extends to everything within that territory. Where states had not yet formed, the U.S. Marshal provided the only law. Their primary function was to support and defend the federal courts. They had wide authority in enforcing every aspect of the law, handling disputes, and carrying out death sentences. They also disbursed and accounted for monies used in running the courts. While I’m not exactly sure, I assume U.S. Marshals paid the bounty money for outlaws. The marshals were not put on an annual salary until 1896. Before that, they worked on a fee system, collecting set amounts for performing particular tasks. Strangely, from 1790 to 1870 they were ordered to take the census every ten years, a fact I didn’t know. U.S. Marshals reported directly to the Secretary of State until 1861 when Congress created the Department of Justice. U.S. Marshals hired as many dupties as needed to perform their duties. Another odd piece of information: U.S. Marshals had no official headquarters until around 1972. Kinda interesting. 

Sheriffs –- Elected by the citizens of a town and paid by the city officials to perform their duties. Their jurisdiction was limited to the county in which they served. Their primary duty was to keep the peace, uphold the law, and maintain the jail. They acted in conjunction with the U.S. Marshals, but had limited authority. Sheriffs hired deputies and formed posses when needed. The sheriff also served as the tax collector for the county. 

Texas and Arizona Rangers –- I can’t think of any tougher law enforcement groups more honored and more deserving than the Texas and Arizona Rangers. Rangers to this day offer untold service to their respective states. Some of their duties include: protect life and property, handle special criminal investigations, quell disturbances, serve as officers of the court at a judge’s request, and suppress criminal activity in any area where local officials are unable or unwilling to maintain law and order. A Ranger’s authority extends throughout the entire state, not curtailed by city or county boundaries. Directly under the governor, they act as an army at times while at others they’re like a police force. The Texas Rangers organized in 1823 when Stephen F. Austin got together a group of men to protect the frontier. Each ranger had to furnish his own horse and firearm. He received $1.25 a day. They were called upon to handle the toughest assignments, usually in conflicts where they were severely outnumbered – “one ranger for one riot” kind of thing. The Arizona Rangers were formed in 1882 under the territorial governor. They were the exact counterpart of the Texas Rangers. The Arizona State Congress abolished them in 1909 but they were reformed years later. 

Bounty Hunters – People aren’t quite sure where bounty hunters sit when it comes to being a good guy or a bad one. Some writers make them more the villains than the hero, but bounty hunters began as law enforcers. A lot of them served in the capacity of deputy U.S. marshals. Others worked directly with sheriffs in apprehending criminals. Bounty hunters freed up the marshal’s or the sheriff’s time so they could focus on their normal duties and they performed a valued service. Of course, I’m sure there were rogue bounty hunters and that’s probably what led to their tarnished reputations. Today bounty hunters track down bail jumpers. 

Pinkerton Agents –- A detective agency founded in 1850 by Allen Pinkerton. They operated nationwide, working for railroad and stage companies. Their logo was the image of an eye and their motto was “We Never Sleep.” Hence, the term private eye.  They performed some of the same work now assigned to the FBI, CIA, and Secret Service. In 1861 while investigating a railroad case, the agency uncovered and foiled a plot to kill Abraham Lincoln on his way to the inauguration. They sometimes used heavy-handed tactics and it sullied their reputation. However, it continued as a family-owned operation until 1967. 

Matt Dillon at 6’7” is probably the best known TV marshal. And Steve McQueen made an excellent, fair-minded bounty hunter in Wanted Dead or Alive. But do you have other favorites? Or maybe you learned something you never knew before about law-keepers in the Old West.

Thank you for asking me to guest blog.  I’ve always loved western romances, especially western historical romances.  I grew up in Kansas in the middle of what was once a cattle town.  My great-grandmother loved to spin stories of the Old West, which included outlaws, gunslingers and of course brave lawmen. Kansas actually has quite a western history.           

I want to share a few places that you may not be aware of.  Coffeyville, Kansas is home to the Dalton’s Defender’s museum. The Dalton boys started out as Deputy Marshals, but soon found the wrong side of the law more profitable.  Their crime spree included bank and train robberies and horse stealing among other things. On Oct 5, 1892, five members of their gang, Bob, Grat, Emmett, Bill Power and Dick Broadwell, rode into Coffeyville, Kansas, set on robbing the Condon National Bank and the First National Bank at the same time. Their plot was foiled when they were recognized and the alarm was sounded.  The townsmen gathered weapons and waited for them to come out of the bank. Four of the Dalton gang lost their lives.  Only Emmett survived to stand trial. He was sentenced to life in prison, but was later pardoned by the governor and fled to California.  The remaining members of the gang who weren’t in on that robbery continued their crime spree.   

To find out more about the Dalton gang visit  http://www.gunslinger.com/dalton.html  To learn more about them and the museum check out http://www.coffeyville.com/Historical%20Society.htm  

Abilene was a famous end-of-the-line cattle town, where famous marshals Tom Smith and Wild Bill Hickok kept the peace. 

Check out http://www.coffeyville.com/Historical%20Society.htm to learn about old Abilene town. 

If you’re in Abilene, be sure to have dinner at the Brookville Hotel, where they’re serving the same family-style meal they did during the cattle days.  (Although, the hotel has been moved from its original site in Brookville, they did a great job of recreating it.) Also, if you’re a WWII buff, President Eisenhower has his Presidential library there. http://www.abilenekansas.org/page.aspx?page_id=20  

Just outside Larned, Kansas is Fort Larned.  It is one of the few remaining forts from the old west that still stands with all it’s original buildings.  It’s a must see for any military history buff.  To learn more about it, check out http://www.nps.gov/fols/  

My family would tell you to see the Biggest Ball of Twine in Cawker City, Kansas.  My mother’s cousin, Linda Clover, is keeper of it right now. In 1953, farmer Frank Stoeber began rolling the spare bits of sisal twine in his barn.  By 1957, his twine ball weighed 1 and 1/2 tons and stood 8 feet tall.  By 1961, when he turned it over to the town, it had over 1,600,000 feet of twine rolled into a sphere 11 feet in diameter, and it has never stopped growing.  Today it weighs almost 9 tons.  For all the jokes that are made about it, my cousin Linda gets calls from interested people all over the world. 

Jack Clover briefly relinquishes control of the twine unspooler to tourists Stephanie Kawachi and Christian Cerrito, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 To find out more. check out   http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Cawker/twine.html    

Here I am in pink at my first book signing.  Linda Clover, the keeper of the Biggest Ball of Twine is on my right.  You can see more pictures on my website www.catherinestang.com  

These are only a few of the interesting places to see in Kansas.  I hope I enticed all of you to not just drive through Kansas on your way across the country, but to stop and visit some of our rich historical sites. To learn more about Kansas check out http://www.kansasmemory.org/       

Here are a couple of books that may help you with your tour of Kansas:  Kansas Off The Beaten Path: A Guide to Unique Places by Patti DeLano & Cathy Johnson.  The Old Wild West: A Traveler’s Guide by Michael McCoy.  This one had a great chapter on Kansas.  

Fleeing the prospect of a brutal marriage, Serenity Springfield, needs a safe haven. Widower Collin MacClarron needs a mother for his four rambunctious daughters.  Fate and a meddling grandmother bring them together, but will Serenity’s secrets tear them apart?  

“SWEET SERENITY is a befitting title for this beautiful romance that will capture your heart from the very first page.”  Reviewer Billie Jo – Romance Junkies  

You can see all my other releases on my website at www.catherinestang.com  and www.myspace.com  Happy Holidays!

Wearin’ a Dress

   Fred Astaire is one of the most acclaimed dancers in American history. Ginger Rogers, too, but she never earned the fame Astaire did. I heard Ginger Rogers said, “I did everything Fred did, only I had to do it backward, in high heels, wearing a dress.

           And yet Astaire was the big star. 

           And that brings me to Sacajawea. Yes, there is going to be something about the west in this, it’s NOT about ballroom dancing.

This teenager, age estimated at 17-years-old, accompanied this group of rugged soldiers all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Saved their lives more than once, probably had to do all the cooking (oh, maybe not) and she did it with a baby strapped on her back wearin’ a dress.

            But do they call it the Sacajawea Expedition? No-o-o-o-o-o!

            I couldn’t even find for sure how to spell her name because Lewis and Clark kept journals and spelled it differently, phonetically I suppose. Sacajawea didn’t speak English. How could she tell them how to spell her own name? She wouldn’t have known where to begin spelling it.

           I read the book Sacajawea by Anna L. Waldo years ago and I just loved that story of the young woman, sold into slavery, one of two wives to this…by most accounts, abusive drunken French fur trader, Charbonneau, leading Lewis and Clark through the Rocky Mountains.

           Man, I think I’ve got it hard when my car’s air conditioning goes on the fritz.

           The Lewis and Clark expedition recruited Sacagawea’s husband, to accompany them westward, expecting to make use of Sacagawea’s ability to speak to the Shoshone. The expedition expected that they would need to trade with the Shoshone for horses. Sacagawea spoke no English, but she could translate to Hidatsa to Charbonneau, who could translate to French for Francois Labiche, a member of the expedition, who could translate into English for Lewis and Clark. It had to be like a multi-cultural game of Telephone, passing the words back and forth through those translations.

             They really wanted Sacagawea, even more than Charbonneau, yet he got hired, and you know he got the money.

             Accompanied by her infant son, Sacagawea set out with the expedition for the west.

             This reminds me of an episode of Walker Texas Ranger.

              Have you ever noticed that when someone is insanely tough, the writers have to weaken him before they bring the enemy in. Superman and Kryptonite? John Wayne with a bullet lodged in his spine. Walker and oh, say, an army with automatic weapons.

Her memory of Shoshone trails proved valuable, according to some sources; according to others, she did not serve as a guide to the trails so much as to find useful foods and medicines along the way. Her presence as an Indian woman with a baby helped to convince Indians that this party of whites was friendly. And her translation skills, however indirect from Shoshone to English, were also invaluable at several key points.

The only woman on the trip, she also cooked, foraged for food, and sewed, mended and cleaned the clothes of the men. Yes, the expedition members hunted for food, too. But that means mainly they shot deer. Once they were crossing the Rockies in treacherous winter weather, her knowledge of edible plants saved the day. To their credit, Lewis and Clark treated Sacagawea as a valuable member of the party, even giving her and York, Clark’s enslaved black servant, a full vote in deciding where to spend the winter of 1805-6. It would be more than a century later when women were given the right to vote. 

So she fed them, sheltered them from hostile Indians and led them through the

In recent years more has been written about Sacagawea and the dollar coin honoring her helped everyone see her contribution.

I’ve thought it would be an interesting series of books to write about the women who were standing right beside the men making history.

           Daniel Boone was married, Davy Crocket, too, and Kit Carson. Who were these women? What were their lives like? Often they got left behind, but even so, many were left in unsettled places. They seem like fertile ground for novels and a part of the largely untold story of taming the west, wearin’ a dress.

              What historical western women, real or fictional, most interest you? Who would make a good character in a novel? How can we get their stories told?