Fun in Deadwood!

I left last Wednesday with my sister-in-law and niece to attend the Wild Deadwood Reads author/reader event in Deadwood, South Dakota.

Hill where Custer was killed.

We stopped Thursday morning at the Little Bighorn battle site. I couldn't drive so close and not soak in and see how the event had unfolded in 1876, only two years before the time of my next historical western series in the general area of the setting of that series. My SIL had been to the site before it had become so commercialized. She said she'd felt more while walking through there then. It was a hot day, high 80's so we only took in the nob where Custer and his entourage were killed, the head stone for the military horses, the head stones for some of the Sioux killed in the battle, and the new monument to the American Indians who lost their lives and those who survived. We walked through the national cemetery that is filled with U.S. veterans and their families.

That evening we arrived in Deadwood. I was enamored as soon as we drove down the street looking for our hotel.

Before dinner we were entertained by the street players. They did a shoot out in the street in front of the hotel where we were eating. 

shootout actors

Fairmont Hotel Oyster Bar

The authors who arrived Thursday met for dinner before a ghost tour in the Fairmont Hotel Oyster Bar. The owner of the bar was our tour guide. He had tales of hauntings he'd encountered while living in the three story building by himself. He knew the history of the building and Deadwood. We then proceeded to climb stairs and visit the rooms where prostitutes had taken their own lives and were seen or felt in the rooms. The building had been a barber shop in the basement and a saloon on the first floor, with a brothel taking up the second and third floors. There was a back door to the barber shop that came out at a set of stairs that would take men up to the second floor to party with a woman. 

Our guide also showed us a door that led into the next building which also housed a brothel on the second floor. This allowed the clientele to move between buildings without being seen.  On the tour one author, who is known for feeling ghosts, had the feeling in one room and took photos of orbs in another. I took a photo that has a strange shadow, that can't be explained. Could it be the poor woman, Maggie, who haunted the guide's room after throwing herself out the window many years ago?

Is Maggie the shadow in the doorway?

Friday was a busy day. We took in the Adam's Museum. It had the history of the area and the unique characters who had lived and passed through Deadwood. I found this Indian tether interesting as I had just been introduced to the cavalry's version.

American Indian horse tether.

We boarded the bus to take us to the 1880's Black Hills train ride.

1880s Train Ride

Me conducting a game

As one of the sponsoring authors, I headed up a game of BINGO using book covers from the sponsoring authors and I emceed the game. The train ride brought back memories as we traveled by steam locomotive through ponderosa pine. The scent of the trees reminded me of riding my horse through the woods on the mountain behind our house. The tour guide dressed as a railroad worker, did a great job of explaining the area and the history.  On the bus ride back to Deadwood we played Black Jack.


With a brief respite after our trip to the train, we attended a PBR rodeo. The young bull riders tried their hardest to stay on the 1000 and 1200 pound animals but the animals got the best of most of the riders. It was a tough string of bucking bulls. The clown/entertainer gave a shout out to our group and posed for us to take photos for our book covers. LOL

Bull Riders

Saturday was the booksigning in the conference room of the Holiday Inn Resort Hotel. We had a steady stream of readers in the morning. It slacked off in the afternoon, but was a fun event.

My niece and I ready for the readers!

I met authors in person that I had only known via internet before and enjoyed meeting readers.

Sunday morning we loaded up and headed to Big Piney, Wyoming to spend the night with one of the school friends. We took her husband's advice and drove home via the scenic route he suggested and were glad we did.

Below Jackson, WY

If you're a reader or author and want to attend Wild Deadwood Reads next year, stay tuned to this blog and I'll let you know when they will start registrations for next year, June 7th-10th.

Werecoyote by Paty Jager

 I take a 2 mile walk every morning. My min-pin/Chihuahua, Tink, usually goes with me. We live in the high desert and have lots of wildlife. Every day we see 1-5 coyotes out in the alfalfa fields catching rodents. Which we like. 

However, the coyotes come down out of the hills to catch the rodents and their path crosses my walking path. Therefore, I am extremely alert to any movement in the tall sagebrush that could be a coyote. My little Tink would be two bites and gone.

One day as we walked the more invigorating path, I heard yipping ahead of us. I called to Tink to get closer and we ended up turning around sooner than normal because it sounded like the coyote was chasing something right toward us. I started walking faster and the sound appeared up above us on the rock cliff. I looked up and there was a coyote staring at us and yipping. I don’t know if it caught Tink’s scent or what. I picked Tink up and kept walking. The coyote followed us along the ridge yipping and finally stopped, turned, and left.

Another day I had both Tink and my hubby’s dog with me. We were walking the other trail. The two dogs were playing a good twenty to thirty feet ahead of me. I saw movement to my right and spotted two deer running up the side of the ridge. Two their left was a large coyote staring down at the two dogs. I called them closer and hurried on by that area. 

This morning, it was cold and I left Tink at the house. She doesn’t like the cold. I was trudging along over the more rugged trail and I spotted the biggest coyote I’ve ever seen in the field just beyond our fence line. I took a photo but it’s fuzzy from trying to zoom in.  He didn’t see me at first. He wandered along, then disappeared. He either noticed the doe and fawn running up the hill or caught my scent. As I stood there trying to get a glimpse of him again, he stood on his hind legs to look over the four to five foot sage brush between us and I was looking at a werecoyote.  His head with perked ears, neck and shoulders were all I could see but as he stood on his hind legs he looked like a man standing there with the head/features of a coyote.

It was eerie and probably came to my mind so quickly because I’ve been judging paranormal books for a contest and they’ve had werewolves in them. 

As quickly as the werecoyote thought emerged in my mind I clicked over to Native American myths and thought how it also looked like images I’ve seen of American Indians wearing buffalo heads and wolf heads during dances and ceremonies. 

A Nez Perce Legend 

How Coyote Created People

One day, long before there were any people on the Earth, a monster came down from the North. He was a huge monster and he ate everything in sight. He ate all the little animals, the chipmunks and the raccoons and the mice, and all the big animals. He ate the deer and the elk and even the mountain lion.

Coyote couldn't find any of his friends anymore and this made him very mad. He decided the time had come to stop the monster.

Coyote went across the Snake River and tied himself to the highest peak in the Wallowa Mountains. Then he called out to the monster on the other side of the river. He challenged the monster to try and eat him.

The monster charged across the river and up into the mountains. He tried as hard as he could to suck 

Coyote off the mountain with his breath but it was no use. Coyote's rope was too strong.

This frightened the monster. He decided to make friends with Coyote and he invited coyote to come and stay with him for a while.

One day Coyote told the monster he would like to see all of the animals in the monster's belly. The monster agreed and let Coyote go in.

When he went inside, Coyote saw that all the animals were safe. He told them to get ready to escape and set about his work. With his fire starter he built a huge fire in the monster's stomach. Then he took his knife and cut the monster's heart down. The monster died a great death and all the animals escaped. Coyote was the last one out.

Coyote said that in honor of the event he was going to create a new animal, a human being. Coyote cut the monster up in pieces and flung the pieces to the four winds. Where each piece landed, some in the North, some to the South, others to the East and West, in valleys and canyons and along the rivers, a tribe was born. It was in this way that all the tribes came to be.

When he was finished, Coyote's friend, Fox said that no tribe had been created on the spot where they stood. Coyote was sorry he had no more parts, but then he had an idea. He washed the blood from his hands with water and sprinkled the drops on the ground.

Coyote said, "Here on this ground I make the Nez Perce. They will be few in number, but they will be strong and pure." And this is how the human beings came to be.

 This was copied from: http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/CoyoteCreatesHumanBeings-NezPerce.html

Top Photo: © Can Stock Photo Inc. / Pixelia29

10 Historical facts about U.S. Marshals by Paty Jager

I found this book, The History of U.S. Marshals by Robin Langley Sommer when I was writing my historical western romance, Improper Pinkerton. I wanted my female Pinkerton to come up against a U.S. Marshal, but I needed to know information about the occupation.  Below are some interesting tidbits about the marshals.

1) The offices of U.S. marshal and deputy marshal were established in 1789 by the Judiciary Act which established the federal judicial system. Their job was to support the federal courts. 

2) Their duties were to serve subpoenas, summonses, writs, warrants, and other processed issued by the courts. As well as arrests and handle prisoners. They disbursed money- paying the fees and expenses of the court clerks, U.S. attorneys, jurors, and witnesses.  Another job was renting courtrooms and jail space, and hiring bailiffs, criers, and janitors. 

3) Before the Civil War, The U.S. Marshals in the North were called upon to capture runaway slaves and return them to the South and the Southern U.S. Marshals tried to stop the slave trade under the realms of piracy. 

4) In the 1800’s before the Civil War, the marshals worked to track down and break up counterfeiting rings.  It was estimated that one-third of the money in circulation by 1860 was counterfeit.

5) During the Civil War the marshals arrested suspected traitors and Confederate sympathizers. They also confiscated property being used to support the rebellion. 

6) 1870-71 the U.S. marshals and deputies supervised all the polling places for Congressional elections to stop the violence against politically active blacks. This was an attempt to defuse the Klan and similar organizations who wore masks or disguises and attacked citizens of different races, colors, and condition of servitude.

7) On the frontier they were the highest ranking law enforcers. 

8) Their duties out west included making sure the mail was delivered and not stolen. They spent many days and months tracking out outlaws who robbed stages and trains taking the mail and currency.  They protected the Indians on reservations, keeping the whites from encroaching on the land the government gave the tribes.  

9) Usually marshals and deputies didn’t shoot to kill and didn’t travel in a large posse.  They usually traveled in groups of four or five along with a wagon for supplies and could be used as a jail. They watched for stolen horses, suspicious travelers, stills, contraband whiskey, and wanted men. 

10) They were paid $.06 per mile traveled and $2 for an arrest. A good year they would make $500.

Paty Jager writes murder mysteries and steamy romance starring cowboys and Indians.

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Photo from
www.piecesofhistory.com

5 Pioneering Nurses by Paty Jager

While researching for information on the first women doctors, I came across information on some remarkable women who were nurses. Since my mom was a nurse and something I don’t have the stomach or the compassion to do, I am always interested in women who do work in this profession.

wikipedia

Mary Ann Bickerdyke – She was a nurse for the Yankee’s in the Civil War.  She was from Ohio and known as “Mother Bickerdyke” the “Cyclone in Calico”. She was never trained as a nurse. Her personal experience and common sense helped her set up hospitals on the battlefields, on ships, in barns, homes and abandoned buildings.  I’m thinking her Cyclone in Calico came while she set up some three hundred field hospitals for General Ulysses S. Grant’s western armies.  Her duties included nursing, cooking, organizing supplies, and transporting the wounded. She also gathered herbs for poultices and medicines she made.

Susie King Taylor -  An African American woman who accompanied her husband to battle and became a nurse during the Civil War. During this war African American women were accepted as nurses and weren’t treated with prejudice.

Louisa May Alcott -  This novelist was more than a writer. She was a Union nurse. Louisa worked to make the wounded comfortable and keep up their morale. 

Kate Cumming – A Southern nurse who came from well to-do family. Most women in the south who came from families of influence were discouraged from working as a nurse. It was felt to be a degrading occupation. Yet there were many Southern women who became nurses. 

Octavia Bridgewater – Before the flu epidemic following the end of World War I, African American women were banned from the Army Nurse Corps and the Red Cross. After the epidemic there was a need for more nurses. Octavia who was from Helena, Montana was a pioneer black nurse.  When she was refused admissions into a nursing program in her home state, she applied to Lincoln School of Nursing in New York. It was one of the few schools accepting African Americans. She graduated in 1930 and went back to Helena and worked in the hospital there. In the 1940’s she became one of a few black women accepted into the U.S. Army Nurse Corps.

Paty Jager writes murder mysteries and steamy romance starring cowboys and Indians.

blog / website /  Facebook / Paty's Posse / Goodreads / Twitter / Pinterest

Source: Bleed, Blister, and Purge: A History of Medicine on the American Frontier by Volney Steele, M.D.