Joseph Isaac Clanton, The Cowboys Outlaw Who Got Away & 5 Free Chapters

Joseph 'Ike' Isaac Clanton

 Joseph Isaac Clanton (1847-1887), most well-known simply as Ike Clanton, was a heavy drinker, possessed a quick temper and tended to talk too much. But he lives in infamy because he was an enemy of Wyatt Earp. 

This enmity was triggered in 1880 when Wyatt learned Ike and his ranch hands stole his horse. Wyatt and friend Doc Holliday rode out with legal papers from Tombstone to the Clanton Ranch in Charleston, Arizona Territory, to retrieve it. 

This so angered Ike that a lifelong war started between them.

During the confrontation, insolent eighteen-year-old Billy Clanton handed the

Billy Clanton

horse over to Wyatt with the snide remark, “You got any more horses to lose?” That didn't sit well either.

Ike Clanton was one of seven children born to Newman and Maria Clanton. His father ‘Old Man Clanton’ worked as a day laborer, gold miner, farmer, and later a cattleman in Arizona Territory. Old Man Clanton allowed a group of outlaws known as The Cowboys to base their operation on his Arizona ranch.

The animosity between Ike and Wyatt grew through several different conflicts. 

In October 1880, Wyatt Earp arrested William ‘Curly Bill’ Brocius, one of The Cowboys, for the murder of Tombstone marshal Fred White. When Brocius was found not guilty, tensions intensified.

Wyatt Earp

Wyatt believed The Cowboys were involved in a bungled stagecoach robbery in March 1881. Two men on the stage were killed. Ike Clanton blamed Doc Holliday instead.

In July 1881, Curly Bill Brocius and gunfighter Johnny Ringo headed for New Mexico to kill two brothers, William and Isaac Haslett. A few weeks earlier Cowboy members Bill Leonard and Harry Head died during an attempted robbery at the Haslett brothers’ general store.

Later that month, Curly Bill led an ambush against a Mexican trail herd at San Luis Pass. They killed six vaqueros and tortured eight.*

William 'Curly Bill' Brocius

When Old Man Clanton died in the Guadalupe Canyon Massacre of August 1881, Curly Bill took over The Cowboys. 

Some have portrayed the town of Tombstone as living in fear of The Cowboys. This was not the case. With the exception of Ike Clanton, who was widely disliked, most of The Cowboys were seen as harmless or merely a nuisance.
All of that changed with the gunfight at the OK Corral on Lot #22, Block 17. 

On a cold day, Wednesday afternoon, October 26th, 1881, 3:00 p.m., in Tombstone on a lot eighteen feet wide, over thirty shots were fired. In thirty seconds. Three Clantons were killed. 

Unarmed Ike Clanton ran away without firing a shot. 

The Earps and Doc Holliday hated him the most, but they didn’t shoot him. After all, he had no weapon. That’s the way things were done in the Old West. The Code. 

Ike Clanton's run-ins with the law were not over. Charged with cattle rustling,

Ike Clanton

Ike and his brother Fin were cornered by detective Jonas V. Brighton on June 1, 1887, in Springerville, Arizona. Fin Clanton surrendered. Ike resisted and was shot dead.

*My husband Stephen once hiked into the canyon where the Mexican smugglers were ambushed. Don’t think of these smugglers as evil, violent men. They were usually merchants who wanted to bypass the often corrupt officials at custom houses on both sides of the border.

Stephen mentioned this ambush, a part of the backstory of the OK Corral gunfight, in cowboy poetry he wrote entitled, “Ridin’ The Divide.” You can find it here: http://www.blybooks.com/2015/11/ridin-the-divide-cowboy-poetry/

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Janet Chester Bly

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Janet Chester Bly has written and co-written 32 books with her late husband, Christy Award winning western author Stephen Bly. She and her three sons completed Stephen’s last historical novel for him, Book 7 of the Stuart Brannon Series: Stuart Brannon’s Final Shot. Can a committee write historical fiction? The Bly family had a four month deadline to find out. Read about the story of the writing process here: http://www.blybooks.com/category/finishing-dads-novel/. Stuart Brannon’s Final Shot, a Selah Award Finalist, is set near Portland, Oregon in 1905.

Wind in the Wires, Book 1, Trails of Reba Cahill, is her first solo adult novel. It’s

Wind in the Wires
Trails of Reba Cahill Series

a 1991 western mystery. It’s a road adventure with a touch of romance. It’s Cowgirl Lit. Janet is working on Book 2 now with a scheduled Spring 2016 release.

More info about the Blys here: http://www.BlyBooks.com  

Free! 5 Chapters of Wind in the Wires to receive right now when you sign up for Bly Books Almost Monthly News here: https://blybooks.leadpages.net/5-chapters-witw-optin/

Cowboy Girls & Their Hats

Cowboy Girls in back row
with Will Rogers

Ever heard of cowboy girls before? The first half of the 20th Century, they didn’t call themselves cowgirls. They insisted on the term cowboy girl. You can usually spot the era of a cowboy girl by the hat she wore. 

Cowboy girls participated in the famous Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show. In 1906 women’s hats were wide brimmed, just like the fancy ones from Paris. Split skirts were acceptable in the show and gals who had the nerve to wear pants were considered real daredevils. 

Cowboy girl hats got even bigger in the 1920s. By then they were active in

rodeos. Not just racing around barrels, but riding bucking stock as well. Fake cowboy girl models wore costumes. The pose, the bare forearms, the make-up, and especially the huge, floppy hats gave them away. Just like today, you could go into a photography studio and dress up in an old-time looking photo. Gals that never got bucked off in their lives could, for a few moments, pretend to be cowboy girls, like the gal in the poem below.

Multi-tasking cowboy girls during WWII or right after, would wear the hat, ride the saddle, and carry a babe in their arms. In some parts of the West, this phenomenon continued into the early 1950s. She and little Buster rode down to meet the mailman to see if hubby sent her a letter from Europe or the Pacific or even Korea.

By the late 1940s and early 1950s, cowboy girl hats were changing and by 1960 small hats worked well on barrel racers. Today cowboy girls wear the same hat as the cowboys. If she is a professional barrel racer like the legendary Charmayne James, she’ll wear a black, beaver-felt, Resistol hat. My husband

Barrel Racer Charmayne James
with her horse, Scamper

Stephen and I watched Charmayne win several national championships and have an autographed photo of her on the bunkhouse wall. 



The Cowboy Girl
Stephen Bly

She wants to be a cowboy girl,
and sit in the saddle tall
Wearin’ chaps and floppy wide-brimmed hat
when she gathers them cows in the fall.

She wants to perch by an open range fire
sippin’ coffee from a cup of tin
Swappin’ stories with the boys about the roundups they’ve seen
and all of the places where they’ve been.

She wants to bend over the coals ‘til the iron is red
and the burnt cowhide begins to smell
Settle them down on the bedground at night
and listen for the cookie’s bell.

Cowboy Girl Wanna-Be

She wants to stretch her blankets on level ground
right under the full moon’s stare
Then go someplace to find a hot shower
and slowly wash her hair.

She wants to settle down between clean white sheets
and maybe get a teddy bear hug
And dream of ridin’ the range far and wide
in a land without snake or bug.

Oh, she wants to be a cowboy girl
with a whoop and a ty-yii-yea!
But she’s hopin’ that her mascara don’t run
and she ain’t havin’ a bad hair day!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Janet Chester Bly

Janet Chester Bly has authored 32 nonfiction and fiction books, 20 she co-authored with Christy Award winning western author Stephen Bly. Stuart Brannon's Final Shot, Stephen’s last novel, was completed by Janet and their three sons--Russell, Michael, and Aaron--and was a Selah Award Finalist. Janet resides at 4200 ft. elev. on the Idaho Nez Perce Indian Reservation. 
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“For me, history is not the story of grand ideas, or broad sweeps describing movements, events or social progress. History is the story of individual people. Not all are famous, but all do help define who we are today, and why we think and act the way we do.”

-- Stephen Bly

Pancho Villa: Outlaw or Hero?

Pancho Villa in the center

At 2:30 a.m., March 9, 1916, Pancho Villa and 500 men attacked the 13th U.S. Cavalry at Camp Furlong near Columbus, New Mexico, the first attack on American soil since 1812. Despite prior knowledge that Villa and his men pillaged, raped, and murdered their way toward the border, the cavalry was caught by surprise.

Reasons for the cavalry’s sluggishness? Some of the troops had been drinking. But more important, all of their rifles were chained and locked in gun racks. Even so, the cavalry managed to get organized and fought off the Villistas, killing many in the process.

During their retreat, the Villistas stopped at Columbus, New Mexico for a looting and window shooting spree. For three hours, bullets struck houses amid shouts in the streets of “Viva Villa! Viva Mexico! Muerte a los Americanos!” They were among the first to shout, “Death to Americans!”

The town was set on fire. Villa’s men gained nothing beyond a few dollars and some merchandise from the burnt stores. The terror continued until about 7:00 a.m. when Villa finally rode away. The smoke-filled streets of Columbus littered with the dead and wounded, fourteen American soldiers and ten civilians were killed in the raid.

Controversial Francisco “Pancho” Villa’s original name was Doroteo Arango (June 5,

Pancho Villa
the revolutionary

1878 – July 20, 1923). The son of a sharecropper farmer, he became a Mexican revolutionary and guerrilla leader. When Villa was 15, his father died, so Villa worked to protect and help support his mother and four siblings. One day he discovered the owner of the hacienda attacking his sister. He shot the man and ran for the mountains, spending six years on the run. There he joined a group of fugitives.

He changed his name while on the run to avoid getting caught by authorities. In the late 1890s, he worked as a miner in Chihuahua in addition to selling stolen cattle. He soon added more serious crimes to his record: robbing banks and stealing from the wealthy.

Though he started as a bandit, he was later inspired by reformer Francisco Modero and helped him win the Mexican Revolution. After a coup by Victoriano Herta, Villa opposed the dictator and fought many battles against him. He was a very effective revolutionary leader. However, in May 1911, Villa resigned from command because of differences he had with another commander, Pascual Orozco, Jr.

Pancho Villa
the folk hero 

On May 29, 1911, Villa married Maria Luz Corral and tried to settle down to a quiet life, although she was not the only woman in his life. Unfortunately, political unrest again appeared in Mexico. Villa gathered troops and chose his sides. He was almost executed when accused of stealing a horse but got a last minute reprieve. He was imprisoned but later escaped.

Villa won battle after battle during the next several years. Then Mexico became embroiled in a civil war. The United States supported Villa’s enemy, Venustiano Carranza. Thus, the attack on the town of Columbus, New Mexico happened as reprisal.

On May 20, 1920, Carranza was assassinated and Adolfo De la Huerta became the interim president of Mexico. De la Huerta wanted peace in Mexico so negotiated with Villa for his retirement. Part of the peace agreement was that Villa would receive a hacienda in Chihuahua. But he enjoyed only a short retirement.

On July 20, 1923, though Villa usually traveled with a number of bodyguards, this

Pancho Villa & Maria Luz Corral

time he went with only four associates. On his drive home, in a 1919 Dodge roadster that can be viewed at the Historical Museum of the Mexican Revolution, someone shouted out "Viva Villa!" and seven riflemen fired more than forty bullets into the car. His body was found with his hand reaching for his gun. He was 45 years old.

Pancho Villa retired

By stealing from the rich and often giving to the poor, some saw Pancho Villa as a modern-day Robin Hood. Villa captured the imagination of many Americans and his exploits were regularly filmed by a Hollywood movie company. He even signed a contract with Hollywood’s Mutual Film Company (1913) to have several of his battles filmed. Some report he advocated for the poor and wanted agrarian reform. Though he was a killer, a bandit, and a revolutionary leader, many remember him also as a folk hero.

~~~~~~~~

What do you think? Is Pancho Villa a bad guy or good guy? 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Janet Chester Bly

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Janet Chester Bly has written and co-written 32 nonfiction and fiction books with her late husband, award-winning western author Stephen Bly. Her published works include Wind in the Wires, Book 1, Trails of Reba Cahill. She is now working on Book 2 to be released later this fall. Find out more at website: http://www.BlyBooks.com  or blog: http://www.blybooks.com/blog/

Excerpt from Stephen Bly's novel, Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon:

Bronc hooted. “I asked Big Margarita to marry me six times one night.”

Cowboy For a Rainy Afternoon

Shorty sat straight up and yanked off his hat. “You did?”

“Yep. Her and every other woman in the cantina that night.”
“And they all turned you down?” I asked.
Bronc grinned. “It was my lucky night.”
Quirt balanced his revolver on the worn slick knee of his suit pants. I couldn’t tell if he had bullets in five or all six chambers. “I heard she cold-cocked one of Pancho Villa’s men when they made that raid across the border.”
“She cold-cocked his horse,” Shorty reported.
I swallowed hard and jammed my cap gun back into the holster. “His horse?”
“Yep. That Mexican hit the ground runnin’ toward the border. He might still be running,” Shorty said. “Not even Villa could face the wrath of Big Margarita with a lead pipe in her hand.”
“Is she the ole gal who gave you that black eye?” Granddaddy asked.
Shorty sighed. “Two of them.”
“She gave you two black eyes?” I quizzed.
Shorty shrugged. “Little Brother, some men is slow learners.” 

Cowboy Clothes That Made The Cowboy

Nobby Snakeskin Boot

 Anyone remember the words to the old cowboy song, “Streets of Laredo?” One of the verses stated, “I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy.” First published in 1910 and also known as “The Cowboy’s Lament”, it was sung around campfires and on the trail for many years before that.

For the old-time cowboys, clothes defined who a man was. For himself and for others. Working cowboys tended to wear long sleeve shirts, usually some faded and stained shade of white, with the collar buttoned. This kept the dirt out when they rode down the trail or behind a herd of slow moving cows. White buttoned shirts, an old beat-up Stetson, and often yellow cigarette stains on the fingers became the norm. 

Most old trail and ranch cowboys were also crippled up a bit, had lost a few teeth and a lot of memory too. However, they never lost their cowboy pride. Or forgot a friend, a horse, or a pretty girl. That was considered the cowboy way.

They had a word for fine, expensive clothes and especially boots. That word was ‘nobby.’ Severe pointed toe nobby cowboy boots didn’t gain much popularity until after WWII. Then they were used only on dress-up occasions. Or by wanna-be cowboys trying to impress.

In the 1950s, the most nobby cowboy clothes could be found at a store called

Nudie's Store Poster

Nudie’s in North Hollywood. Nudie suits were flamboyant cowboy outfits that country-western singers first began to wear, inspired by the singing cowboys in the movies. Rhinestones, bright colors, and intricate embroidery were all hallmarks of a custom-made Nudie suit.

Nudie suits were named after the man who made them -- Nudie Cohn, a North Hollywood tailor who became the go-to clothier for country-western stars. Elvis Presley’s gold lame tuxedo had one of the biggest price tags of any Nudie suit: $10,000. It appeared on the cover of Elvis' 1959 album 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong. Hank William's most iconic outfit was a white Nudie suit with musical notes stitched along the sleeves.

Elvis Presley Gold Lame Nudie's Suit

Nudie’s business boomed in the flush years after World War II, when people weren’t afraid to flaunt their wealth. Superstars like Bob Dylan, Cher, David Byrne, John Wayne, and John Lennon all loved his wild outfits—the gaudier, the better. Nudie's closed down in 1994.

My late husband Stephen Bly bought a cowboy hat at Nudie’s in 1979. A plain, beaver felt, XXX, dark brown Resistol to which he added a horsehair hatband “wore well” for him.  With a 7 7/8 hat size, it was tough to find one that fit.

You can tell a lot by how a man puts down his cowboy hat. Crown down, he’s the real deal. Brim down, he’s faking it. And if he tosses his hat on the bed, he’s never competed in a rodeo. That’s for sure and certain, some say. Or it could depend on the region you’re from, the lifestyle conditions, and the season of the year.

Stetson Cowboy Hat

Here’s nine general Cowboy Hat Etiquette Rules:

1. Don’t mess with a cowboy’s hat. Never touch without permission.

2. Never wear a cowboy hat backwards.

3. Wear felt hats between Labor Day and May and straw otherwise, depending on the weather.

4. Never handle your hat in such a way that flexes or bends the brim or crown.

5. When traveling with an expensive cowboy hat, pack in a hatbox with handles. With less expensive hats, either carry them by hand or protect with a plastic bag.

6. Take the hat off when entering a building or sitting at a table for a meal--unless there’s no place to safely lay it down.

8. Keep a hat on when eating at a counter or out on the range.

9. Touch the brim of a cowboy hat by moving the hand away from the holster to signal a greeting of friendly intentions.

Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon

As a rule, to ask a man what outfit he rode for was common courtesy in cowboy country. However, in the scene below in the 1950's from Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon, it was a derogatory remark to indicate they knew this stranger never worked on a ranch. In this case, the clothes didn’t fool them.

The bent brass bell tinkled when the oak and smudged glass front door of the Matador Hotel swung open. A weak-eyed man with pointed toe cowboy boots and a wide brimmed, rain streaked white Stetson sauntered across the lobby to the registration counter. Quirt Payton reached for the grip of his old single action army revolver. I had to lean forward to peer around the large plaster pillar that blocked my view. All six cowboys fixed their eyes on the intruder. Coosie Harte coughed into his bandanna and called out, “What outfit you ride for, son?” ... When the man shoved his hat back, his ears pushed out and there was no tan line on his forehead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Janet Chester Bly

About Author & Free 5 Chapters Giveaway Offer*…

Janet Chester Bly has written and co-written 32 books with her late husband, award-winning western author Stephen Bly. She and her three sons completed Stephen’s last historical novel for him, Stuart Brannon’s Final Shot. Read about the story here: http://www.blybooks.com/category/finishing-dads-novel/.

Recent release Wind in theWires, Book 1, Trails of Reba Cahill, is her first solo adult novel. It’s a contemporary western mystery. It’s a road adventure with a touch of romance. It’s Cowgirl Lit.

*For free 5 Chapters of Wind in the Wires to download now, sign up for Bly

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Along the Montana Missouri River Breaks

 

Steamboats on Missouri River at Fort Benton, MT

 The Missouri River Breaks region of eastern Montana was a wild and remote part of the Old West. An easy place to get lost in, either by accident or on purpose, with every turn in the trail a possible ambush could happen. Few lawmen ventured there. It’s still rugged and remote.

Steamboats used to chug their way up the Missouri River to Fort Benton, Montana. One of the oldest communities in Montana, Fort Benton was an important early-day trading post

Missouri River Breaks region

established in 1850. Built at the head of navigation on the Missouri River, steamboats brought supplies upriver, but due to rapids could go no further. All cargo for the gold camp of western Montana got unloaded here and transferred to wagons and pack strings.

Fort Benton was named for Senator Thomas H. Benton, originally from Missouri who did a lot for the West. His son-in-law was John C. Fremont.

Fort Benton Grand Union Hotel boasted high ceilings, plush furniture, and glittering

Fort Benton Grand Union Hotel

chandeliers and became the last word in fashion in the 1870s and 1880s. 

One of the balconies is three feet wide and two feet deep, more for looks than practicality. While it’s on the second story of the hotel, the lobby below has a twenty foot ceiling, so leaping off the balcony is

Fort Benton Grand Union Hotel

not an option. This was important to know in a scene of Creede of Old Montana by Stephen Bly, set in Fort Benton.

The Great Northern railroad reached Helena, Montana by 1887. Because of that event, the great supply town of Fort Benton started to decline. The last steamboat arrived in town in 1922. By then, it had transformed into a quiet cattle and farm town. Quiet, that is, except when the cowboys came to town. It’s now the county seat of Chouteau County.

The cold arctic winds blew down through Alberta and blasted into Montana, freezing everything it touched. For those first trappers, miners and cowboys, many a winter day was spent trying to survive.

Summers could be almost as miserable, often with no air movement. Bugs

Missouri River near Fort Benton

swarmed. Skin cracked. Crops blistered. The kids slept outside on the porch covered with damp sheets to try to keep them cool. Living down in the canyons was worse in the stifling heat.

At the hotel in Fort Benton, you can saunter down to the Missouri River and watch the slow moving water. The frontier is still there. It just has a fresh coat of paint ... in some places.

Fort Benton Grand Union Hotel

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Janet Chester Bly

Janet Chester Bly has authored 31 nonfiction and fiction books, 19 she co-authored with 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.

Her most recent novel release is Wind in the Wires, Book 1, Trails of Reba Cahill Series

Website: www.BlyBooks.com

Creede of Old Montana

Creede of Old Montana book blurb:

Avery John Creede, an ex-cavalry solider, tramps along the Montana Missouri River Breaks region in search of four Army pals who didn’t show up for a scheduled reunion. In Fort Benton, Creede stops a bank robbery and all hopes of sitting on the sidelines for a respite vanishes. Meanwhile, he attracts the attention of two beautiful women. One wants his ring. The other wants him dead.
Find it here in hardback or eBook:
http://www.blybooks.com/books/old-montana/

Deep in the Depths of New Mexico

New Mexico Cliff Dwellings

New Mexico was one of my late husband’s favorite vacation spots. Every time he visited he found surprising new worlds to explore for personal enjoyment and research. Such a rich depth of varied cultures can be discovered embedded in this southwestern state, America’s 47th.

Prehistoric Indians date from as early as 25,000 B.C. when the Sandia people left the earliest evidence of human existence. The phenomenal Anasazi basket makers and weavers existed circa 1 A.D. to 1300. The Pueblo

New Mexico Taos Pueblo Indians

Indian villages dotted the Rio Grande region during the 1200s to 1500s. Then there are the nomadic Indians, the Spanish and Mexicans. The traders and cowboys. The prospectors and frontier military. 

The railroad era started full-scale trade and migration from east to mid-west in 1878. Prospectors plied their luck and enticed big mining interests. Homesteaders and their stories vied with infamous outlaws. Farmers at one time were the mainstay and much later alongside came the atomic energy and computer chip industries. The world’s first atomic bomb detonated in 1945 in southern New Mexico after development at Los Alamos.

New Mexico Native American Pottery

After WWII trickles and then swarms of artists brought art from around the globe for the benefit of locals and the growing, huge tourist trade.

In some places, there are only a few blocks separating the culture segments providing rich specimens of artifacts and a wide scope of archaeology. Another spot in the world that possesses similar layers of different cultures stacked one upon the other is in Rome, Italy.

The capital city, Albuquerque, was founded in 1706 with eighteen families but not incorporated until 1891. The economic base has been in constant flux. From agriculture to transportation, From healthcare to technology.

Before the railroad in 1880, sheepherders ruled. When mining made it a boom

New Mexico Nuclear Waste

town with its saloons as well as a horse-drawn streetcar system, immigrants of all descents landed in droves. The main groups included Pueblo Indians, Hispanics, Europeans, African Americans and Chinese. The climate especially drew them. Albuquerque provided a dry, sun-filled refuge touted by many as healing. At one time many of its citizens included those suffering with tuberculosis and other respiratory problems and their caregivers. A dozen sanitariums were established.

In the 1920s, Albuquerque was a transcontinental air route stop. Route 66 brought transcontinental motorists through the city. A rural and urban mix congregate here in a cacophony of languages, races, and proud family histories.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~

Janet Chester Bly

Janet Chester Bly authored 31 nonfiction and fiction books, 19 she co-authored with 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. She resides at 4200 ft. elev. on the Idaho Nez Perce Indian Reservation in north-central Idaho. Find at more at website: www.BlyBooks.com

Stephen Bly’s Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon took place in Albuquerque in 1954. The whole story spans one afternoon. On that day, a ten-year-old boy goes with his grandfather to an old hotel to visit five old cowboy friends. They play cribbage in the lobby and talk about the old days. The eldest of the crew was born during the Civil War. All of them rode the range from the late 1880s until the 1940s. They tell first-hand stories of what the West was truly like. Meanwhile, a drama unfolds that propels the old men and the lad to make one last cowboy stand.

Find it here eBook or Hardback: http://www.blybooks.com/books/western-cowboy-novel/

“For me," Stephen Bly once write, "history is not the story of grand ideas, or

Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon

broad sweeps describing movements, events or social progress. History is the story of individual people. Not all are famous, but all do help define who we are today, and why we think and act the way we do.” 

The Daddy Train Comes to Gearhart, Oregon

Gearhart, OR beach

Janet Chester Bly

As waves rolled in, they watched an empty sea for ships on the horizon. Peace and quiet faded to long days of tense waiting for supplies that never came. The 1805-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition now made plans to winter on the Oregon coast. In the spring, they tackled the long journey home by land.

One hundred years later, fiction character, Stuart Brannon, lingered nearby the same spot along Gearhart, Oregon beach. Lost in the mesmerizing waves as though he also expected his ship to appear, he pondered the end of the Old West and trying to cope with New West ways.

His friend, Lord Edwin Fletcher, remarked: “I’ll bet you wish you were back there with them.”

Brannon, an old Arizona rancher of fifty-eight, out of his element wearing suit, tie, hat and boots, had to agree. "I'm not ready for auto cars and telephones and moving pictures." He raised a leather case. "I'm not even sure about this new-fangled take-down Winchester rifle."

Coastal towns such as Gearhart, Oregon owed its existence and well-being to adventurers like Lewis and

Family finds leisure at Gearhart

Clark, and fighters for law and justice such as Brannon, as well as good times for Portland citizens who spent a lot of cash there at the close of the nineteenth century.

State sponsored tourism followed this new wealth. Portland celebrated the 1905 centennial of Lewis and Clark arriving at the Pacific, the end of their cross-country journey.  

All this cash made a broader sponsorship of people willing to invest in the interesting idea of leisure time. The Oregon coast provided many places of leisure for sale.

Just about all resorts at the turn of the century were destination resorts, so a hotel was an important necessity. The first hotel in Gearhart was built in 1890 and stood just off the town's main streets.

A second hotel, far grander, rose about a mile away and closer to the ocean in 1910.  By 1915, both had burned to the ground. In 1923, a new hotel emerged. It was demolished in 1973 to make way for a concrete hulk for tourists Gearhart residents called Attica.

The Daddy Train, Gearhart, OR

Many families spent the full summer in the early Gearhart days. Women and children stayed for weeks at a time and the men came back from Portland over the weekends. This novel new way of living was made possible by a world moving fast enough to make more people mobile. For five bucks and over five hours, a train arrived at the Gearhart Park Station, in the center of a recent clear cut. It got nicknamed the Daddy Train.

A boardwalk near the station led to the hotels, the beach, the boarding houses, the campgrounds or to the homes along Ocean Avenue, known as Gin Ridge. In the 1920s, there were about 120 permanent residents, swelling to 1000 or so during the summer.

Vacationers and residents then and now take on the challenge of clamming for the delicious razor clam. Clickhttp://www.blybooks.com/2011/12/bear-steak-clam-chowder/

Razor Clam Chowder

here for a razor clam recipe:

The Gearhart Golf Course is a true links course that rolls and dips among mounds of grass-covered dunes. A breezy adventure, the ocean remains out of sight, although it can be heard and felt. Throughout the course, narrow ridges and other topographical features carom balls every which way.

Gearhart and nearby towns are perfect for beach walks and gallery browsing. A scenic stretch of coast tucked between crashing surf and Pacific forests, that portrays a number of Lewis and Clark historic sites.

This community is located in Clatsop County, south of Astoria, between Warrenton and Seaside along Highway 101. Gearhart is also positioned near the Lewis & Clark River while overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Janet Chester Bly

 Janet Chester Bly is the widow of Christy Award winning western author Stephen Bly. She has written and co-written with Stephen thirty-one fiction and nonfiction books, including Stuart Brannon's Final Shot. Janet and her three sons finished this last novel of Stephen's for him, which was a Selah Award Finalist. Janet is working on a new novel series and nonfiction releases.
Click here for the story of the Bly family writing project:  http://www.blybooks.com/2012/03/coping-with-loss/

For more info about Janet and her books, click: http://www.blybooks.com/

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Stuart Brannon's Final Shot
Stephen Bly with Janet Chester Bly, Russell Bly, Michael Bly, and Aaron Bly

In 1905, two orphans flee from Oregon's Tillamook Head. One is branded a hero. Will they tell the truth and

Stuart Brannon's Final Shot

risk the wrath of a dangerous man?

Meanwhile, legendary lawman Stuart Brannon searches for a missing U.S. Marshal at the request of President Teddy Roosevelt. That means leaving his beloved Arizona Territory to attend the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland. He also grapples with the game of golf on behalf of a Gearhart, Oregon celebrity tournament sponsored by his friend, Lady Harriet Reed-Fletcher.

Find Stuart Brannon's Final Shot here: http://www.blybooks.com/product_category/historical-western-novels/

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