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| Oregon Map |
Oregon Coast 1905
Janet Chester Bly
When my three sons and I
determined to finish the novel Stuart Brannon's Final Shot my late
husband Stephen Bly began, we had quite a challenge. Could a committee create
fiction? We had the passion and four months to find out.
That included research,
crafting the rest of the story, and turning in the manuscript of 77,000 words.
So we divvied out the 1905
research.
The Places
I toured the Oregon coast,
from Seaside to Astoria to study the sights, smells and sounds and historical
details. The law enforcement. The layout of the town sites. The Salt Works
Lewis & Clark memorial. How to catch razor clams and the greens and
fairways of the Gearhart golf course.
I also learned all I could
about gray whales, snakes and wild horses. Even discovered the rare presence of
a cougar around 1905 through old newspaper accounts.
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| Lewis & Clark |
I ventured to Fort Clatsop
where explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark wintered in 1805 and scanned their journals.
Found transcripts in a museum of an interview with a family member who had
lived on that site. I investigated the Portland Lewis and Clark Centennial
celebration of this event in 1905.
Each of the sons probed at
least one other topic. Choices included Europe and assassinations. England's weddings
and royalty. Goldfield, Nevada with its mining and labor unions. Panama and the
canal project, with connections to France, Nicaragua and Colombia.
The controversy and
intrigues of the Panama Canal project formed a large part of the plot.
“I’m going to make the dirt
fly,” President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed.
And he did.
It's alleged he supported a
revolution that pressured support of that project when Congress balked. Then
there was the war to win against malaria and yellow fever, as well as gold to
be mined.
We learned once more that
on-location research is vital to save making fatal research mistakes.
Two weeks before deadline,
we learned we had to make a substitute for the island we'd chosen for a major
scene. Any old island would do for us. But we discovered none existed off the
Oregon coast. No islands anywhere, only rock outcroppings. After some time of
panic, we considered the Tillamook Head promontory near Seaside, a late
addition to our landscape scheme. I hiked it, studied the history, asked
questions of local historians, and made the change.
The People
We settled on the Clatsop
tribe for the Indian characters.
We gathered biographies on
famous golfers and historical persons, such as Theodore Roosevelt, Wyatt Earp,
Buffalo Bill Cody and W.C. Fields.
We needed to know about
orphan farms and Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.
We also had to study horse
behavior, to determine the hero's interaction with his out-of-control black
stallion.
Gearhart pioneer Narcissa
Kinney died before our story begins, but her presence permeates the city. For
one thing, she made it a dry town, which it remained more than seventy years
after her death.
Narcissa also brought
culture in the form of a 200-acre Gearhart Park that included an auditorium for
traveling circuit speakers and fiery orators, Broadway hits and bands such as
John Philip Sousa's. Inspired by the Chautauqua movement, more than four
hundred cities across the country sponsored these same events. President
Theodore Roosevelt called them, “the most American thing in America.”
Narcissa’s husband,
Marshall Kinney, instigated the links golf course on the north side of
Gearhart. My husband loved playing on the grass-covered dunes so much he
determined to set a story there. Gearhart Golf Links opened circa 1892 and
ranks the second oldest course in the west.
Products and Inventions
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| Early 1900s auto horn |
We found ads about cigars
and cigarettes, clothing styles and golf equipment in old newspapers. We had to
learn western genre basics like types of guns and knives, about flashlights and
lawnmowers, telephones and walking sticks.
In our study of trains, we uncovered
railroad land controversies. We searched out transportation, such as motor cars
and boats, bicycles and fire trucks. We wondered if 1905 autos had horns. Found
out a few did.
The main scene begins on a
train. The railroad opened up more tourists for the seacoast village of
Gearhart, Oregon, tucked between crashing surf and Pacific forests.
Culture and Events
We delved into Victorian era artwork
and books, plays and music, crimes and diseases and also the politics of 1905.
We studied the Spanish-American War, especially the U.S.S. Maine explosion in
the Havana, Cuba harbor.
Creating a historical story
begins with facts, the truth in fiction.
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Janet Chester Bly has authored 31 nonfiction and fiction books, 19 she
co-authored with
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| Janet with sons: Aaron, Michael, Russell |
Christy Award winning western author Stephen Bly. Titles
include The Hidden West Series, The Carson City Chronicles, Hope Lives Here,
and The Heart of a Runaway. Stuart Brannon's Final Shot was a
Selah Award Finalist. She resides at 4200 ft. elev. on the Idaho Nez Perce
Indian Reservation. Her 3 married sons, Russell, Michael and Aaron, live down
the mountain in Lewiston with their families.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stuart Brannon's Final
Shot by Stephen Bly with Janet
Chester Bly, Russell Bly, Michael Bly,
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| Stuart Brannon's Final Shot |
and Aaron Bly
Book blurb:
Two orphans flee Tillamook
Head. One of them is branded a hero. Dare they tell the truth and risk the
wrath of a dangerous man?
Meanwhile, ex-lawman Stuart Brannon searches for a
missing U.S. Marshal at the request of Teddy Roosevelt. Who can deny the
president of the U.S.?
And his old friend Lady Harriet Reed-Fletcher convinces
him to grapple to learn the game of golf on behalf of a celebrity charity
tournament.
