A New Story

Jan here, with a revelation.

We live in the West.

If I had had any doubts about that, they were completely erased over the weekend!

You see, I'm working on a new story proposal. This is Coop's story, the one I've been wanting to write ever since I finished "A Home for His Family" back in 2014. 

Justice Cooper, aka "Coop," was Nate Colby's friend and partner in "A Home for His Family." Coop had been raised in Oregon, descendants of pioneers who followed the Oregon Trail in the 1840's. When he teamed up with Nate, he was ready to put his roots down in the Black Hills - mountains that called to him. They weren't as remote and inaccessible as the Rockies to the west, but they were Home.

As this story opens, Coop is following God's call to establish a church in the town of Buffalo Gap, ninety-some miles south of Deadwood, in the middle of cattle country. At that time, Buffalo Gap was a rip-roarin', shoot-'em-up, first class cow town, on par with Tombstone or Dodge City.  

Today? It's pretty much a ghost town, just down the road from our house.

In 1885, it was the terminal end of the railroad and the shipping point for all the cattle raised in the Black Hills area. Texas drovers, bringing cattle north to feed the hungry gold miners in the 1870's had discovered a rancher's paradise - open ranges, thick buffalo grass, and prairies that spread as far as a man could see.

Into this wild and wooly town comes Abby Rose Slater, mail-order bride. Except that she conveniently forgot to let her prospective husband know that she was a widow with a young child, fresh off the boat from Ireland. When the prospective husband rejects her, Coop steps into the fray and saves her from her only other alternative: employment in one of the "sporting houses" in town.

Yep. You got it. Redeemed with the toss of a few gold coins, Abby Rose the rejected mail-order bride becomes Abby Rose, the bride in a marriage of convenience.

But there's nothing a mother wouldn't do for her baby, is there? Boy howdy.

My dear husband and I went on a research trip last Friday to explore Buffalo Gap and the surrounding countryside. It really doesn't take much imagination to go back in time one hundred thirty-five years and see this area through Coop's and Abby Rose's eyes.

I don't know when this spur was last in use, but it's about
where the depot and hotel once stood. The modern railroad
 is in the background.

The railroad still goes through Buffalo Gap, although it no longer stops.

The view from where the depot used to be still looks down Main Street to the Hills beyond.

We followed the old road from the town of Buffalo Gap through the Gap itself, just as Coop and Abby Rose did as he took her home to the ranch where he works.

The Gap is one of four natural entrances through the eastern edge of the Black Hills to the mountains beyond. For years, the bison migrated through here and the Lakota and Cheyenne who lived in the area followed them. The native tribes also cut their lodgepoles here to support their tipis. 

Cowmen (and women) still ranch here. In fact, folks live and work here much the way they did in the 1880's...with the addition of nicely graded roads and electric lines, of course.

What was that? Where are the paved roads? Pshaw. We left those behind back at the highway. We're in Ranch Country now.

Back in the 1880's and now, there are ranches in the Gap.

The road follows Beaver Creek as it winds between the hills and buttes into the interior of the Black Hills.

Then after a few miles, you come out of the Gap....

Beauty everywhere.

Everywhere.

How far can we see? In this picture, that red canyon on the left is about 1/2 mile from where I stood to take the picture. That peak on the right, in the background? That's the edge of Hot Springs, South Dakota. About five miles away.

This is the ranch where Coop brought Abby Rose. Will she survive in the Wild West? More importantly, will their marriage of convenience ever become a marriage built on love and faith?

Meanwhile, as part of my research I'm working on my sourdough recipes. I hope to perfect my sourdough biscuits to share with you soon. Old recipes are hard to bring up to today's standards, but I mean to try!

And Sam is still growing. He's almost eleven weeks old now, and moving into that out-of-proportion awkward puppy body. He's been too wiggly to get a good picture, but the other day he and Jack were snuggled together underneath my desk chair. A weird position for Jack, but they slept like this for quite a while.

Aren't they cute when they're sleeping?

Thanks for coming along on my trip! What is your favorite part of doing research?

Jan Drexler is an author by day who is addicted to counted cross stitch and sauntering through the Hills with her dear husband and their puppies - goofy corgi Jack and baby border collie Sam. You can find Jan's books and other fun things on her website: www.JanDrexler.com.