Journal Notes

The 6 and ½ hour drive to the Lone Pine Film History Museum was breathtaking. The tops of the mountains around the location were filled with snow and voices of the actors who filmed some of the greatest westerns of all time echoed throughout the valley below. I was proud to have been asked to visit the museum and give a lecture about reel women of the Old West versus real women of the Old West. The group that assembled there to hear the talk were kind and attentive and enthusiastic about the history of women on the wild frontier. The museum staff couldn’t haven’t been more cooperative and decent. I can’t wait to go back. It would be great to be invited to return during their October film festival. The museum always has a host of famous Old West actors gathered for the event. I’ll be traveling to Long Beach to see my brother in a couple of months. He’s been away more than five years and I still miss him terribly. I read a book recently about the subject of false accusation of child molestation and the twisted mothers involved in extra-marital affairs who help shape such claims. Barbara C. Johnson’s is the author of the book, “Behind the Black Robes: Failed Justice” She says we are living in the Age of Feminist Hysteria and Feminine Rebellion. Here are some excerpts from her book, at pages 128-29: “?But as bad as rape is, and whatever the cause, it is not as bad as an innocent man being sent to jail for 20 years for a crime he did not commit. Unfortunately, false accusations of rape are not uncommon?.Despite these high false-accusation rate figures, men are often assumed to be guilty on the basis of a simple accusation of a woman or a coached child. A man who attempts to defend himself is often prevented from doing so by rape shield laws, which prevent him from presenting exculpatory evidence. Even worse, as some well-publicized cases have shown, women who knowingly make such false accusations are not prosecuted. Essentially, they are given a free pass for committing a crime?.The result is that the credibility of real rape victims is destroyed. Since the rate of false rape accusations is so high, and since false accusations are not prosecuted, women are essentially encouraged to make false accusations of rape for political reasons, and the public has no way of knowing whether a rape accusation is real or not?. Court reform should include the following two initiatives with regard to rape: Additional protections for men, to allow an adequate defense against false charges of rape. Prosecution of women who, knowingly and maliciously, make false charges of rape” I agree with Ms. Johnson – something has to be done.

It’s snowing over Donner Summit, but I’m off to Lone Pine anyway. If I recall, it was that same wild-eyed enthusiasm that brought about the Donner Party’s ultimate demise. More when I return – if I return. In the meantime enjoy this review of Tales Behind the Tombstone. I have a couple promotions copies to give away. If you drop me a line and let me know your interested, they’re yours! 4.0 out of 5 stars Really Interesting Book….Rare Subject, February 25, 2010 By Ambergris “John Thomas” (New England…..USA) – See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER) This book became the latest edition to my vast library of western fact and lore this past Christmas. People that know me well realize that it can be a pretty tough chore to try and get me something in print that tells it like it is, or rather like it was as to the American frontier. Something that I don’t already have that is. Someone took a chance on this book and fortunately hit the mark. Tales Behind The Tombstones is sorta a book that takes over, or begins where a lot of other books, bios, and documentaries are set to call it end of trail. I have read so many books and seen so many docus and shows that do a fair job in telling the tale of some of the west most colorful figures, but when it comes to their finally getting around to detailing said figures deaths, they tend to not manage much more than just to tell you they upped and kicked it on a certain date. Oh, they mention that they got shot, got sick and died, wasted away, etc. But rarely will you find what is in my opinion such a well researched collection of the last days and events of some the wests best known heroes, as well as a handful of its sorriest.
“Tales” is a really interesting book that I feel both tenderfoots and seasoned old west aficionados will find informative, and even fascinating in parts. It not only covers the last days and deaths of well known western legends such as Billy the Kid and Wild Bill Hickok, but it also introduces you to other interesting characters that made their mark on the west and whose lives we will instantly find worthy of getting comfy with and reading on. People like Sarah Winnemucca, Rattlesnake Dick, and a fascinating but heartbreaking entry called Children of the Trail. Try as you might, it will be difficult for anyone to recall a book or story that begins at the end of a true legends tale of wonder. Most of us that are big fans of this era know so well all about the deeds and musings of so much that came before the end. Allow yourself the pleasure now of catching up and joining so many as the end is right up over the next rise.
A really good book at a very reasonable price that I highly recommend. Enjoy…

I had the pleasure of seeing Hal Holbrook perform his one man Mark Twain show a couple of nights ago. It was extraordinary. Not only was I moved by the brave interpretation of the material, but impressed with Mr. Holbrook’s tenacity. He’s 85 years old. The set was simple. A desk, chair, pulpit, a few books, an ashtray, and a crystal pitcher of water and a glass. It was a wonderful experience and it made me want to read Huck Fin again. Samuel Langhorne Clemens came West looking for golf and discovered a career instead. He plied his trade as a journalist, but it was his short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” (set in the area that he’d gone to hunt for gold) that caused a sensation and made his name as a writer. Twain was brilliant. I thought I’d include some of my favorite Twain sayings on the site today. I aspire to be as entertaining in my work. We write frankly and fearlessly but then we “modify” before we print. – Letter to Fred J. Hall, 10 Aug 1892 about his work as a journalist. I conceive that the right way to write a story for boys is to write so that it will not only interest boys but strongly interest any man who has ever been a boy. That immensely enlarges the audience. – Life on the Mississippi. It is no use to keep private information which you can’t show off.- “An Author’s Soldiering,” 1887 Experience of life (not of books) is the only capital usable in such a book as you have attempted; one can make no judicious use of this capital while it is new.- letter to Bruce Weston Munro, 21 Oct 1881.

I’ve been struggling with insomnia for years. I am completely unable to sleep until it’s time to get up! It’s maddening. It does give me a great deal of time to do research. And there’s nothing more fun to do at 3 a.m.. The last few nights I’ve been looking into the life of a lawman turned outlaw by the name of John Larn. On this day in 1877 Sheriff Larn of Shackleford County, Texas resigned because he and another outlaw were found to be stock thieves. That’s a polite way of saying they were cattle rustlers. It was a busy year for Larn. He killed one of his partners in a fight over a horse in Colorado, a nosey sheriff in New Mexico, two Mexicans near the Pecos River, and a third riding along with him on a cattle drive. Larn was eventually shot and killed by vigilantes. I’ll be heading to Lone Pine, California at the end of this week. I’m going to be speaking at the Lone Pine Film Museum. Lone Pine has been used as a setting for numerous westerns – How The West Was Won, North to Alaska, and Joe Kidd are just a few. Back in the 1870s, Lone Pine was a wild and woolly supply town providing goods and services for the gold and silver miners in the area. It’s a beautiful location. I could use a change of scenery. Everywhere I go however, there I am and that’s the damned awful misery of it.

Dodge city is the backdrop for today’s “It Happened When” segment. Bully Brooks, a petty thief and hard case with a chip on his shoulder, got into a heated debate with Buffalo Hunter, Kirk Jordan. Shots were fired and Henry H. Raymond, another buffalo hunter near by the action witnessed the exchange. According to his diary (a copy of which is on file in the manuscript division of the Kansas Historical Society) Brooks had been shot, but escaped. “Tuesday, March 4, 1873. Beautiful day down in town. Bill Brooks got shot with a needle gun – the ball passing through two barrels of water.” Brooks quickly left town, but he was back a few months later causing more trouble. As annoying as Brooks was at least he had a purpose. I really feel like I’m in a rut with writing. After 10 years of being in this line of work I just thought it would be different. There’s lot of hustle to improve sales. Lots of e-newletter sent out, postcards, calls made to bookstores, advertisement placed, but emails aren’t returned, the phone never rings, and I don’t see sales improving much. I’ve got to think of a big publicity venture. Or perhaps I should just set this aside all together and go full time into private investigation work. Maybe too much bad has happened and I just can’t see beyond that. My brother has surgery in May to relieve the swelling on the brain he received from beatings he endured. Bars of soap shoved in a sock can cause a lot of damage when six or seven men are using them to beat you senseless.

I had some really wonderful teachers throughout my school years, but I question some of the material I had to read. I often wonder if my perpetual sense of impending doom was cased by those Dick and Jane books I read as a kid. What was Dick always running from? And why did he have to be told twice? Maybe I could have handled that sort of thing had I read it as an adult, but I suspect that reading Dick and Jane in my early childhood crippled me emotionally. I can’t put my finger on where it all started to go wrong some days. The Dick and Jane theory is as good as any right now. I think if there hadn’t have been great teachers in my life things would have turned out a lot worse. I wish I had cared more about learning when I was a teenager. In the Old West teachers were allowed to hit students. Some of them even threw things at their students – a book, a stick, a shoe?. I’m glad that isn’t a practice that continued on through time, but I can’t help wondering if that could have helped me. I think if a few of my high school teachers would have thrown something at me I wanted like a really good looking guy it could have improved my receiving skills.

5.0 out of 5 stars A great addition for your bookshelf By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) – See all my reviews

There’s gold in them thar hills, and the women came to get it out! Chris Enss presents some of the finest snapshots of women prospectors of the old west and how they made their mark in history. When reading these marvelous tales of rough and tumble characters it is impossible not to get a feeling how our western states were developed.

There are many illustrations and actual photographs which depict how hard life actually had been for these women. Through the years they not only prospected, they found gold and had the mines to show for it. Side line businesses were started so as to fund their ventures in the hills. We learn about their restaurants, boarding houses, and managing skills. Yet, they gave charity to miners on the skids by giving them free food, bathing, and often staking to search for a new claim. Compassion was really the second name for many of these tough broads, but never cross them like Jamieson did when he shot and killed Charley (Charlotte) Hatfield’s husband. She did a lot of searching for many years until she caught up with him by chance and shot him three times!

Author Chris Enss brings to this compilation of true stories, a keen eye for interesting anecdotes about each of these women of the old west. In 1905 Lillian Malcolm said “The grandest and healthiest life known is this rough pioneer life. And I don’t see why more women are not in the hills.” Early photographs are from many historical societies in the western states and you have to see them to really get this wonderful flavor of seeing a woman swinging a pick or sifting a pan for gold.

Chris has written for television, short subject films, live performances, and the movies. Her professionalism shines and you are easily transported to yesteryear in an old western motif. Past books have included The Doctor Wore Petticoats, The Lady Was a Gambler, Pistol Packin’ Madams, and Outlaw Tales of California. A Beautiful Mine is a recommended exceptional read and a great addition for your bookshelf.

Clark Isaacs
Reviewer

It’s one of those days where the cold, rainy weather mirrors that gloom that permeates your heart and soul. I face this day with hope that things will get better soon. Everyone who loses somebody wants revenge on someone, on God if they can’t find anyone else. But in Africa, in Matobo, the Ku believe that the only way to end grief is to save a life. If someone is murdered or taken from you by a false accusation, a year of mourning ends with a ritual that they call the Drowning Man Trial. There’s an all-night party beside a river. At dawn, the killer is put in a boat. She or he is taken out on the water and they are dropped. They are bound so that can’t swim. The family of the dead or wrong person then has to make a choice. They can let them drown or they can swim out and save them. The Ku believe that if the family lets the person drown, they’ll have justice but spend the rest of their lives in mourning. But if they save them, if they admit that life isn’t always just… that very act can take away their sorrow.

In my never ending quest to increase book sales I’m going to attempt a move into a frightening area – I’m going to move from text e-mail newsletters to video. A camera crew will be at my office on Friday to shoot a series of on-line commercials. Ten years ago I couldn’t have imagine that there would come a day when millions of ordinary people would be creating and uploading homemade videos onto sites like YouTube each month, and this is just the tip of the iceberg! This is not some flash-in-the-pan fad; it is a symbol of the growing clout of online users who expect to get information delivered the way they want it – in video. Much of my day is spent doing the actual marketing of the books I’ve written. The ads that will be produced will be funny and catchy – at least that’s the plan. If all goes well I’ll be sending out video emails by mid-March. I spend the bulk of my day working on promotions and sales for the books I’ve already written. It’s that distasteful part of the business that my authors don’t care to participate. I was naïve enough when I started writing to think that the publisher did the promotions. Not a chance. Little did I know. I’m grateful that I’ve been able to arrange book signings at some incredible Old West sites. Last year I was in Dodge City at the Long Branch Saloon. In the coming months I’ll be in Cody, Wyoming at the Irma Hotel. As and Old West junkie it doesn’t get any better than that. Keep your eye out for the video email – coming soon to a computer near you.

There are days when I am keenly aware that even if my brother lives to be released from federal prison he will never be the same again. A fire has swept through his life and there is nothing left now but the shell of the man that once was. It’s a hurt from which I believe I will never fully recover. I ask God everyday to help. I want to forgive. I cannot understand why it is so impossible for so many to have glossed over the true bad guy in this scenario. John Steinbeck said it best in East of Eden “Just as there are physical monsters,” Steinbeck asks, “can there not be mental monsters born with face and body perfect? If a twisted gene or a malformed egg can produce a physical monster, may not the same process produce a malformed soul?” There were a lot of malformed souls in the Old West – for example: On this day in 1878 the Murphy-Dolan faction murdered the benevolent John Tunstall outside of Lincoln New Mexico. A bloody power struggle called the “Lincoln County War: broke out following his death. It’s easy to hear about this crime and instantly think of Billy the Kid’s role in the war…glossing right over the ones that started the mess in the first place.