Wed In Wyoming And A Little Texas

Two previously published novels, first work A2007; second work A2011.

The principal reason for my doing this project was simply because I wanted to do it! Ive long been interested in toponomy - the science of placenames - and until now, with the priviledge of retirement, was afforded the time to do it. It was mentally laborious, time consuming, ( a guesstimated 10,000 hours over a 6-year period), highly educational and greatly rewarding. I have always had an interest in dissecting things, analyzing them and then restructuring the information gathered into a new form with the hope of producing a pleasant result. In order to do this, I had some help. My best helpmates in gathering the information I sought were things seen on paper, not things seen on a screen. I feel good about the fact that I, coming from another era, did not employ any electronic means to accomplish the task. And it was all formed out with the use of an antiquated device known as a typewriter! My principal information buddies were the 2-volume U.S. Postal Service Zip Code and Post Office Directory, the 50-state Rand McNally road map inventory, and each states official road map. The indices to each of these individual road maps followed by a thorough hand-and-eye scanning of their surface provided the means to lift the names of these entries - nearly 22,000 of them! The names are a smattering of old names and new names, common names, usual names and unusual names but basically this is a study involving physical geography, with placenames formed from lots of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and a few conjunctions. Its physical! Many of the placenames chosen for inclusion in this piece were chosen because they involved things essential to the early settlement and survival of this country.

A Kirkus Best Fiction of 2019 Pick! A cross between Daniel Woodrell and Annie Proulx, Wyoming is about the stubborn grip of inertia and whether or not it is possible to live without accepting oneself. It’s 1988 and Shelley Cooper is in trouble. He’s broke, he’s been fired from his construction job, and his ex-wife has left him for their next door neighbor and a new life in Kansas City. The only opportunity on his horizon is fifty pounds of his brother’s high-grade marijuana, which needs to be driven from Colorado to Houston and exchanged for a lockbox full of cash. The delivery goes off without a hitch, but getting home with the money proves to be a different challenge altogether. Fueled by a grab bag of resentments and self punishment, Shelley becomes a case study in the question of whether it’s possible to live without accepting yourself, and the dope money is the key to a lock he might never find. JP Gritton’s portrait of a hapless aspirant at odds with himself and everyone around him is both tender and ruthless, and Wyoming considers the possibility of redemption in a world that grants forgiveness grudgingly, if at all.

Here for the first time is a digest of known information about the stallions whose descendants appear in the early volumes of the American Quarter Horse Association studbook. Robert M. Denhardt, a former officer in the American Quarter Horse Association, spent many years tracking down the bloodlines of the foundation sires, their pedigrees, and highlights of their careers. The result is a brief but comprehensive alphabetical listing of the stallions that made the Quarter Horse one of the most exciting and popular breeds of horses in the Americas today.

Cottonwood, an Observation is based on the lifetime of a cottonwood tree and the things seen by him over an eighty-five-year period from 1842 until the end of WWI. He watches the development of the country around him, from pristine prairie, the time of the Buffalo and the Indian, through the settlement and development of a city nearly under his branches. Cottonwood becomes intimately involved in the lives of the main characters of the book from what he sees and hears from his point of observation above the Sweetwater River, in the developing state of Wyoming. He observes the wars of the era, the medical developments of those years, the passing of the Indian, the coming and the passing of the Pony Express. He watches as the telegraph, telephone, and the railroad come into his part of the world. He becomes intimately involved in the stories of those passing his post. He inspires introspection into our personal lives by his constant attempt to analyze the actions of human beings, their sometimes peaceful and sometimes deadly interactions with one another. He records the stories of the lives of those fleeing the confusion and discord of Europe as they search for opportunity in the New World. We watch, through the eyes of Cottonwood, as a woman in Appalachia struggles, with an iron will, to break the bonds and stereotyping of ignorant mountain women. Cottonwood observes as the love of two men bring salvation to an incorrigible Indian warrior. He watches as love heals the broken lives of two WWI survivors and catalogs those things he has seen, felt, and questioned. The fact that freedom, dreams, love, and courage overcome every obstacle is the true conclusion of Cottonwoods narrative. Cottonwood, the observer, makes us take a critical look at ourselves, our actions, our motives, and why we are here. Cottonwood, the book, makes us look at our nation and why this unique place called America and its God-given freedoms are here. He leaves us with the fervent hope that we will continue to deserve and appreciate those blessings and benefits that only Americans enjoy.

Explores the landscape, history, geology, and recreational opportunities afforded by the rivers of Texas, presenting information about each river's size, location, tributaries, discharge, and special sites.

Texas Jack: America’s First Cowboy Star is a biography of John B. “Texas Jack” Omohundro, the first well-known cowboy in America. A Confederate scout and spy from Virginia, Jack left for Texas within weeks of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. In Texas, he became first a cowboy and then a trail boss, jobs that would inform the rest of his life. Jack lead cattle on the Chisholm and Goodnight-Loving trails to New Mexico, California, Kansas and Nebraska. In 1868 he met James B. “Wild Bill” Hickok in Kansas and then William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody in Nebraska at the end of the first major cattle drive to North Platte. Texas Jack and Buffalo Bill became friends, and soon the scout and the cowboy became the subjects of a series of dime novels written by Ned Buntline.