Arbuckle Mountains

By Kristy McCaffrey

The Arbuckle Mountains, located in the southern part of Oklahoma, are the oldest known formations in the United States between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains. They were named for General Matthew Arbuckle (1778-1851), based on a nearby Fort Arbuckle that had been christened in his honor.

The mountains were part of the Chickasaw Nation within the Indian Territory until 1907 when the Twin Territories (Indian and Oklahoma) were combined under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Federal government to form the state of Oklahoma. Prior to that, the Chickasaw Nation had governed itself.

Arbuckle Mountains

There is a major lake in the region, Lake Arbuckle, as well as the Washita River. The Arbuckles are an important mining region for limestone and dolomite, although early settlers were mainly subsistence farmers and ranchers.

Arbuckle Mountains

In my upcoming release THE SWAN, the setting is Conleyville, a fictitious town in the Chickasaw Nation at the base of the Arbuckle Mountains.

Pre-Order THE SWAN

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(it will also be available at Kobo and in paperback on release day)

Oklahoma Territory
November 1899 

Dr. Anna Ryan has been spurned by the Dallas medical community for the simple reason of being a woman. Wanting more than a rural practice alongside her mother, also a doctor, Anna accepts an invitation from a mentor to join a private hospital for disabled children in Oklahoma City. But when she falls in with a band of women attempting to liberate a town of innocents, she’ll need more than her medical training to survive.

Malcolm Hardy has skirted the line between lawlessness and justice since escaping the mean streak of his father and his no-good half-siblings a decade ago. In Oklahoma Territory he created enough distance from his family name to find a quiet purpose to his days. But then Anna Ryan walks back into his life, and his hard-won peace is in jeopardy.

The last time Malcolm saw Anna, she had been a determined girl he couldn’t help but admire. Now she was a compelling woman who needed his help to find The Swan, a mysterious figure with a questionable reputation. But one thing was clear—Anna’s life path was on a trajectory for the remarkable while Malcolm’s was not. Surrendering to temptation would only end in heartbreak.

Anna is the eldest daughter of Logan and Claire from THE DOVE. 

The Wings of the West Series Reading Order
Book One: The Wren
Book Two: The Dove
Book Three: The Sparrow
Book Four: The Blackbird
Book Five: The Bluebird
Book Six: The Songbird (Novella)
Book Seven: Echo of the Plains (Short Story)
Book Eight: The Starling
Book Nine: The Canary
Book Ten: The Nighthawk
Book Eleven: The Swan (Coming Soon) 

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What Makes It Western?

 Exactly how western does something have to be in order to be considered western? For those who like to read and write historical westerns I think the answer to this question is straightforward. In order for a book to be considered a historical western both the setting and the time period are important. Westward migration in the late 1800’s for example, is one of the most popular configurations. For contemporary authors and readers, though, the answer gets a bit murkier.

Let's start with locale. Most of us know where the West isn't. It isn't on the East Coast or in the South or in the Midwest, but beyond that people's opinions may begin to differ. In order to say you're reading or writing a western where does the boundary begin? At the mighty Mississipp? The famous river slashes the United States from Minnesota to Louisiana partitioning it into an eastern third and a western two thirds. We've all heard the references about something being the biggest or the best thing West of the Mississippi. The giant body of water is a simple and well-known marker for many, but is a story set in Iowa really considered the West?

For some readers and writers, I would dare to say a true western story takes place even farther West than that. Maybe not until one leaves Central time for Mountain time on the edge of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico has one arrived “out West.” This is probably the demarcation line that fits best in my own brain, however, I then immediately have to confess my inclusion of Texas and Oklahoma in my roundup of western states and how can this be? Texas and Oklahoma are clearly in the South lol.

Well this leads us to the second criteria for considering something as western. Lifestyle. Horses, cattle, wide open spaces like ranches and undeveloped land, as well as employment that is in some way related to the land, all signal a western flair. Where there are horses, there are hats, cowboy boots, and jeans—items that have widely become considered standard western wear. Food preferences tend toward beef since it is plentiful as well as other hearty, stick-to-the-ribs meals ideal for people who work hard outdoors and spend long hours in all types of weather. It's true many of these mentions hearken back to historical times, but in a contemporary western story perhaps those ties to the past are in and of themselves a qualifying feature.

Location, lifestyle, and ties to the past, then, could be called indicators of the western genre, but I would even go one step further to include values. In my opinion a western story embodies values such as love of family, loyalty, faith, hard work, good stewardship, neighborliness, and grit. Does anyone notice these things flowing straight out of our western past? Pioneering, hardship, dependence on land and animals, remote settings, and big dreams for a good life fuel the stories of the West—even the contemporary ones.

For me, blending modern language and conveniences with the other appealing elements of the Western genre provide fodder for enough stories to keep me writing for the next century when we’ll all have to start talking about space cowboys.

I confess to stretching the boundaries of what some may consider western in my books, such as setting it in California, or including politics in the mix, but the truth is, I will never stray far because while I never owned a horse or a cow, growing up in a small town where my predecessors farmed for a living, my heart is bound to the importance of it all as well as to the romance. There are so many stories to discover, so many dirt roads to walk down, so many streams to wade across, and an abundance of lives to live via the people on the pages.

Have you read one of my contemporary western romances yet? I invite you and encourage you to do so—especially if you are primarily a historical reader. Check them out. Look for the hallmarks mentioned above. Are there enough of them present for you to feel like you are reading a western?

The Blue Sky Series is Sweet With Faith and follows the Wests, a Montana ranching family.

The Fake Series is Sweet With Sizzle (chemistry, not spice) and follows The Connor siblings and their search for love in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

All That Glitters is a Sweet With Grit Celebrity Stand-alone that tackles harassment and SA in the country music industry.

And The Target is book one in my new Bodyguard Series, a Sweet With Suspense tale about a country music singer who needs protection from a stalker.

The above list of western specific elements is by no means exhaustive. I'm curious what you need to read or write into a book in order to feel it deserves the label of western. Drop a comment below and weigh in.

What is it about Westerns people love?

What is it about Westerns that people love? I believe it’s the simplicity of life, the quietness of that era, the rawness, the freedom, and the grit. Westerns portray a picture of what life might have been like long ago after our ancestors first came to America and settled. It was a time when there was no gray, only black and white, and our heroes would fight to their death, if needed, for what they believed in. A time when you could find land, settle down on it, and build your life around it—a home, farm, ranch, family. Many admire a cowboy's way of life: riding the ranges, never staying at the same place for long, traveling from ranch to ranch for work, sleeping outside under the stars, eating what you caught or shot, and cooking over an open campfire. Can you imagine striking the mother load in California? Or what about a gunslinger fast at the draw? Risky, but the confidence they must have had. Being a bounty hunter could be interesting work, but it is also a risky lifestyle. What about a lawman like Matt Dillon in “Gunsmoke” or Wyatt Earp after he turned from his outlaw way of life? A schoolteacher in a tiny one-room building in the middle of nowhere instructing children of all ages and backgrounds would have been fulfilling but also hard work in the Wild West. What about A preacher or nun spreading the good word? Helping to build the Great Northern Railroad across the vast wilderness might have been interesting work. A bartender, barmaid, or a lady of the night in the red-light district? It’s a tough way to make a buck and stay alive to talk about it. Own a business like a mercantile, hotel, saloon, dress shop, blacksmith, or manage the bank or post office. What about A rancher or farmer? Hard but fulfilling work. The options for employment were not like they were now in the 20th century, but they could find honest work if they wanted to. Many preferred the other route, where the “bad guys” came in—the bandits, thieves, cutthroats, and cowboys. Yes, the Cowboys were not always known as the good guys in history. I grew up watching Western sitcoms and movies in the 1960s and 1970s, and now, many years later, they are still my favorites to watch and read. I especially like them if they have a good romance tied to the story, like John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara in McClintock. I also prefer stories that have strong family ties, like Bonanza, 1883, and 1823. The stories are usually simple in context, and it is easy to figure out who the “good guys” are versus the “villains.” And who does not like to root for their favorite heroes? The scenery in most Western movies is breathtaking, and we long to be there riding horses, with the wind rushing through our hair as we race with wild mustangs across long grassy hills. The water is so clear we can drink straight from the river. The sky is so vast and clear you can see for miles, and the sunsets are so gorgeous with reds, yellows, and purples that you long to sit in the back of a hay-filled wagon and share kisses with your favorite cowboy as the sun goes behind the mountains. Many people like Western movies and books because of the history of the wild frontier. They love to learn about the past and the strong people who lived, loved, bled, conquered, and died building our great country.

In the last few years, Westerns have made a massive comeback. Yellowstone, 1883, 1923, and Deadwood greatly impacted the revival. Do you agree? What is your favorite Western movie or book? Why do you love Westerns? Thanks for reading, my friends! Take care.

Tequila, second favorite drink of the Old West

 Cowboys usually asked for whiskey when they bellied up to the bar, but tequila came in a close second. It became popular after the 1840's, especially in the South West area.

 Last summer, the Berthoud Conservation Gardens had a special plant blooming, the Parry's Agave.      

Each flowering plant has a giant stalk up to 20 feet tall, with 20 to 30 side branches. Each side branch produces hundreds of flowers.                                
Often called century plants, agaves live many years before flowering, after which they sadly die. This succulent (not really a cacti) has been a source of human food and beverage for at least 9,000 years. 

When an agave’s central bud is removed, the cavity fills with fluid. This nutritious juice is called aguamiel (honey water). When aguamiel is allowed to ferment it becomes an alcoholic beverage called pulque. The Aztecs fermented pulque from 1000 B.C. to 200 A.D.. 

                             
When pulque is distilled it becomes mescal. But while all tequilas are technically mezcals, but not all mezcals are tequilas. Tequila is a high quality mescal produced only from the blue agave plant and grown only in limited regions of Mexico.  

Sugars concentrate in the core of an agave just before flowering. If the leaves are trimmed away, the core can be baked or roasted. Native Americans of many Southwestern tribes pit-roasted agaves in an elaborate process that took three or four days of cooking!

Chunks of roasted agave were chewed and the tough fibers discarded. Roasted agave could also be pounded into cakes and dried for later use.

Agave leaves have strong fibers good for many uses. Sisal fiber derived from Agave sisalana is grown worldwide and used for inexpensive twine, rope, paper, fabric, filters, mattresses, and carpets.

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Around 1936, in Tijuana, an Irishman called Madden, was known around the area for his Tequila Daisy. Though Madden admitted that the creation of the drink was a lucky mistake, it’s become one of the most celebrated in the U.S. (margarita in Spanish means daisy).

In 1974 the Mexican government declared the term tequila, intellectual property. This made it necessary for tequila to be made and aged in certain areas of Mexico, and it also made it illegal for other countries to produce or sell their own “tequila. 

"Hey, Waiter. What's that worm doing in my drink? And please don't say the backstroke."

 In the 1950's, when a mezcal maker discovered a moth larvae in a batch of his liquor, he decided the stowaway improved its taste. Since then, he started adding “worms” to all his bottles as a marketing strategy. The larva is usually either a red worm or a maguey worm. The red worm is typically considered tastier.

            This weekend, why not treat yourself to a Sunrise

            or Margarita and get lost in a good western story!  

           

 My Stories: 

Western Romance: Break Heart Canyon * Undercover Outlaw * Cowboys, Cattle and Cutthroats * A Cowboy’s Fate*Special Delivery. 

Contemporary Romantic Thriller: Fatal Recall

Medieval Romance: The Dragon and The Rose * Iron Heart        *Promise Me Christmas. 

Victorian Romance: Lady Gallant * Victorian Dream 

Fantasy: The Fae Warriors Trilogy: Solace * Bliss * Portence 

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Cowboy Footwear Yesterday and Today by Reggi Allder

Old Cowboy Boots

Modern Boots

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I Love shoes, including boots. However, cowboy boots were more than decorative.

 Next to his horse, what was most important to the cowboy on the cattle drive? Some might say it was his rifle or his rope, but the boots cowboys wore were paramount to their ability to do their job.

During the cattle drive era of 1866–1884, ranch hands all had boots. Old Western boots were a specific style of boot. They were made of cowhide leather and traditionally had a stacked leather heel with a rounded, squared, or pointed toe. But before wearing them on a cattle drive, they had to be broken in to make them comfortable. Boots were individually handmade and designed to withstand the wear and tear of the drive. 

Who is the oldest boot maker in the USA? The Frye Company is an American manufacturer of shoes, boots, and leather accessories. Founded in 1863, 1863, Marlborough, Massachusetts claims to be the oldest continuously operated American shoe company. The Frye boot is still available.

Tooled Leather Boots

Today,  there are many companies making Cowboy Western boots. The leather is sometimes tooled.

Snakeskin Boot

 

The boots are often made from an exotic animal skin such as, ostrich, alligator, buffalo, or snakeskin. 

 Of course, women and children wear cowboy boots as a fashion statement or when working on a ranch. In my Sierra Creek Series book 2, His Country Heart, Amy decides to wear pink suede high heeled cowboy boots to her wedding.

Pink Boots with Sparkle

Pink Boots

 

Do you wear boots? Please leave a comments and thanks for stopping by. Click on comments.

HIS COUNTRY HEART, SIERRA CREEK SERIES BOOK 2 by Reggi Allder “Perfect when you need a feel-good read.” “If you love cowboys, small towns, second chances, and real-to-life characters, the Sierra Creek books are for you!”

Amy Long’s new life in the small town of Sierra Creek is all planned, men and marriage are not needed. But then she meets the perfect man in gorgeous rodeo champion Wyatt Cameron. After only a few months, she promises to marry him. Is everything happening too fast? Should she listen to listen to her head or her heart?

A confirmed bachelor, cowboy, Wyatt Cameron, wonders why he asked a woman he hardly knows to marry him Yeah, she’s sexy and sweet, but she comes with baggage he doesn’t need. If he follows through, will he marry in haste and regret in leisure?  Buy Link  There are four boots in the Sierra Creek Series. 

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