The Dime Novel Author ~ D. K. Deters

I recently read a bit of history about Prentiss Ingraham (1843–1904). He was a dime novel author and is best remembered for his novels about William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Ingraham claimed to have written more than 600 novels during his 34-year career. Clearly, this author was no slacker—and he had my attention. I had to find out more.

The Mississippi Encyclopedia notes:

“Ingraham was attending Mobile Medical College when the Civil War began but he left to enter the Confederate Army in Withers’s Mississippi Regiment of Light Artillery. He later transferred to Ross’s Texas Cavalry Brigade, rising to the rank of commander of scouts. He was wounded in the foot while fighting at the siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, and the injury troubled him for the rest of his life. He was taken prisoner but escaped. He received a second wound while fighting at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee.”

Afterward, his adventures took him to Mexico, Austria, Egypt, and London.

It's also interesting to note that “Ingraham eventually joined rebels fighting against Spain in Cuba, becoming a colonel in the Cuban rebel army as well as a captain in the navy. Captured by the Spanish while trying to smuggle arms into Cuba, Ingraham later escaped and thereafter always used the title colonel.”

In the 1870s, he began writing dime novels for the New York publisher Beadle & Adams. He based many of those novels on his own adventures. Ingraham was writing adventure fiction when he met Buffalo Bill. Cody was already a national celebrity and known for his “Buffalo Bill Combination” stage show. Ingraham traveled with Cody and sometimes acted as a press agent for the show. His experience helped him to take over the Buffalo Bill series of dime novels. He went on to write over 200 Buffalo Bill stories.

I was amazed at the pseudonyms Ingraham used. Wikipedia shows: “…Dr. Noel Dunbar, Dangerfield Burr, Major Henry B. Stoddard, Colonel Leon Lafitte, Frank Powell, Harry Dennies Perry, Midshipman Tom W. Hall, Lieut. Preston Graham. He also ghostwrote several works for Buffalo Bill Cody.”

While many readers loved Ingraham’s stories, some critics were less complimentary. The University of Mississippi Libraries’ Ingraham Exhibition states:

“While Ingraham’s novels were essentially hackwork written quickly and produced cheaply, they did attract a substantial popular audience. … Ingraham is credited with popularizing the cowboy hero and in shaping America’s popular perception of the Western frontier.”

Curious, I decided to read one of the stories myself. It’s easy to see why his stories influenced the Westerns of today. If you’re also intrigued and would like to explore some of these remarkable stories firsthand, Project Gutenberg offers 17 free eBooks by Prentiss Ingraham, including several popular Buffalo Bill stories. You can explore titles like Seventy Years on the Frontier, Buffalo Bill’s Boy Bugler; Or, The Last of the Indian Ring, and Buffalo Bill’s Weird Warning; Or, Dauntless Dell’s Rival. Enjoy.

Resources:

All photos are from the Public Domain.

The Settlers’ West by Martin F Schmitt & Dee Brown

University of Mississippi Libraries - Ingraham Exhibition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prentiss_Ingraham

https://www.gutenberg.org/

https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/prentiss-ingraham/

Luna Release Day!

 

Today is release day for my new sweet historical western romance - Luna!

Luna was such a fun story to write. When I was doing the research, I looked to old newspapers from Pendleton, Oregon, in 191, where and when the story takes place. 

Among the top headlines that summer were a train robbery, Buffalo Bill's appearance at a circus that came to town, and the start of World War I. 

I was able to have the hero and heroine, Hunter and Luna, on the train that is robbed. It was reportedly one of the last Wild West robberies where an old six-shooter was used. 

Hunter and Luna also attend the circus and see Buffalo Bill Cody. I unearthed an old video of actual footage from some of the circus performances with him and his Wild West performers. It was so neat to watch that and imagine my characters in the crowd. 

There's also a scene with a "damsel in distress" as well as Hunter keeping his real identity (it isn't a bronc buster) from Luna when they first meet. 

I hope you'll give the story a try!

She’s searching for peace and grace.

He’s ready to step into his next big adventure.

Haunted by memories of the fateful day that changed her life, Luna Campanelli seeks a fresh start in Pendleton, Oregon. Life in the wild western town is nothing like she imagined, although the rugged beauty of the area soothes her troubled spirit. An unlikely friendship with one of the area ranch hands lifts her hopes, until she discovers the cowboy isn’t who he’s led her to believe.

Hunter Douglas didn’t intend to hide his identity from the woman he met on the train, but when she assumed he was his sister’s hired hand, he didn’t correct her. He never anticipated forming such a deep connection to her, especially when thoughts of her continue to infiltrate his carefully made plans. As a recent college graduate with an inheritance he intends to use to start his own ranch in Pendleton, Hunter must decide if he is willing to open his heart and include Luna in his future.

Will they embrace the unexpected love that has blossomed between them, or let fear tear them apart?

This sweet and wholesome romance is a story of love, healing, and the power of hope in a delightful western setting. Join Luna and Hunter on their journey as they discover what it truly means to love unconditionally.

After spending her formative years on a farm in Eastern Oregon, hopeless romantic Shanna Hatfield turns her rural experiences into sweet historical and contemporary romances filled with hope, humor, and hunky heroes.

When this award-winning author isn’t writing or covertly seeking dark, decadent chocolate, Shanna hangs out with her beloved husband, Captain Cavedweller.

Shanna loves to hear from readers. Follow her online at:

ShannaHatfield | Facebook | Newsletter

Buffalo Bill Dam by Zina Abbott

 

 

While visiting the fantastic Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, and the eastern entrance of Yellowstone National Park, a must-see stop on the highway between the two is the Buffalo Bill Dam and its attached visitors’ center just west of Cody.

 

William F. Cody and George W.T. Beck (above, also with sheep rancher, Henry J. Fulton) officially became business partners in 1895 with the founding of Shoshone Land and Irrigation Company, later known as Shoshone Irrigation Company. they also founded the town of Cody. Buffalo Bill served as president of the new company with Beck as general manager. This company planned to irrigate more than 400,000 acres along the Stinking Water River, today’s Shoshone River.

Construction of what was the known as the Shoshone Dam, six miles west of Cody, Wyoming, was the key that opened about 90,000 acres in northwestern Wyoming to irrigated farming. So dry and forbidding was this part of the state that it was one of the last regions in the United States to be settled. It wasn’t until the 1890s, with dreams of irrigating the region and turning it into productive farmland, that a significant number of people began to settle there.

Shoshone Canyon is a gorge cut through the Rattlesnake Mountains, a northwest trending uplift in the earth’s crust that rises 3,700 above the surrounding terrain.

D.W. Cole with wife and three daughters

In early 1904, Buffalo Bill transferred his water rights to the Secretary of the Interior, and that July exploratory drilling began for Shoshone Dam. The structure was designed by engineer Daniel Webster Cole, who stayed near the dam site during construction, which took place between 1905 and 1910.

Starting in July 1904 and continuing for ten months, work began with drilling for geologic investigation. At the same time, construction of an access road up the narrow canyon from Cody began.

The chosen contractor for the dam itself was Prendergast & Clarkson of Chicago, which started work in September 1905. The company built a camp for workers. It also started on a diversion dam designed to divert the river into a wooden flume, through a tunnel, and out through another flume to rejoin the river bed. Two men were killed in the construction of the tunnel.

A June 1906 flood destroyed the flume. The delay caused the Bureau of Reclamation to suspend the contractor's contract and to call upon the contractor's bonding company, U.S. Fidelity and Guaranty Company to ensure the completion of the work. Little work was done until March 1907. Another flood in July damaged the diversion dam again.

Working conditions were harsh, leading to the first strike in Wyoming's history in November, in which workers demanded and received three dollars a day from U.S. Fidelity and Guaranty Company.

In March 1908, the bonding company delegated responsibility for the work to two new contractors, Locher and Grant Smith and Company. Work progressed more quickly, with the first concrete pours in April. 

Spring floods set the project back once again, causing concrete work to be suspended. Concrete work started again in March 1909, and despite more spring flooding that suspended work from July to September, work moved quickly. Another threatened strike was broken when Italian laborers were replaced with Bulgarian workers. Final concrete was poured in January 1910, with a final cost of $1.4 million. Seven construction workers were killed on the project.

When completed in 1910, Shoshone Dam, one of the first concrete arch dams built in the United States, was considered an engineering marvel. The concrete structure measures 108 feet (33 m) deep at the base, tapering to 10 feet (3.0 m) at the crest, with a volume of 82,900 cubic yards (63,400 m³) of concrete. The dam was part of the Shoshone Project, which comprised a system of tunnels, canals, diversion dams, and Buffalo Bill Reservoir.

Artist rendition showing relative height as compared to U.S. Capitol

At 325 feet high, the Shoshone Dam also was the highest dam in the world, surpassing New York’s Croton Dam. During construction, a certain competitive spirit existed to exceed Croton Dam’s height, as noted in this photograph. 

Courtesy Buffalo Bill Dam Visitors Center

The height of the rival dam was written on the side of Shoshone Dam.

It is anchored into Pre-Cambrian granite rock on either side.

The spillway is an uncontrolled overflow weir on the south side, 298 feet (91 m) wide, dropping through a tunnel in the left abutment.

Visitors to completed dam about 1910

 The dam ended up costing $929,658 to build, a tremendous sum in those days. Immediately after completion the dam suffered from leakage through the outlet works, leading to low water elevations that exposed mudflats, which soon produced dense blowing dust. Corrective work to valves took until 1915.                   

Problems with the right abutment's outlet works led to their abandonment in 1959. They were sealed in 1961.

The reservoir began to lose capacity immediately as a result of the Shoshone's heavy silt load, and the material deposited at the head of the reservoir continued to blow when the reservoir was drawn down. Work continued on silt dikes and reforestation into the 1950s, but the reservoir's capacity is reduced from initial projections.

1926 visitors to Shoshone Dam

In spite of these difficulties, along with completion of the Panama Canal, Buffalo Bill Dam was considered an American triumph. Both construction projects were featured at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. To represent the dam project, the U.S. Reclamation Service, barely a dozen years old, erected an exhibit featuring an idyllic forty-acre irrigated farmstead set in a desert valley rimmed by beautiful mountains—part of Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin.

 

The Buffalo Bill Dam was considered a significant enough structure that it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places within the first five years of the register’s creation.

Today, the Buffalo Bill Reservoir and Dam irrigates more than 93,000 acres, where principal crops are beans, alfalfa, oats, barley, and sugar beets.

Again, I encourage all who visit either Cody, Wyoming, or Yellowstone National Park to take the time to visit this landmark dam, one of the earliest of its kind. 

My most recent release is Eleanor, part of The Switchboard Sisterhood. Although set in 1925 Anchorage, Alaska, like the Buffalo Bill Dam, it tells of moving into modern technology. to find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:

https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/buffalo-bill-dam-wyoming

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill_Dam#

https://digitalcollections.uwyo.edu/luna/servlet/uwydbuwy~35~35

http://www.waterarchives.org/

Buffalo Bill Dam Visitors Center https://bbdvc.com/

https://centerofthewest.org/2018/01/12/points-west-buffalo-bill-town-1/

https://exploringwitheriks.wordpress.com/2018/08/25/forged-in-ice-snow-the-buffalo-bill-dam/

 

A Victim of Wild West Identity Theft

by Shanna Hatfield

In my recent research for a book set in 1912, I happened across a few articles in an old newspaper that mentioned a "champion cowboy" by the name of Buffalo Vernon.

In 1910, Buffalo Vernon wowed the crowds at the very first Pendleton Round-Up. The articles in the  newspaper touted him as the "champion of the world" at bulldogging and claimed his appearance was "hailed with delight."

Following the tradition started by Bill Pickett, Vernon would "bulldog" a steer by jumping from a racing horse, wresting a steer to the ground and biting it on the lip to keep it down. (We can be ever so grateful bulldogging gave way to steer wrestling and eliminated the lip bite!).

Vernon was also a champion steer roper and trick roper, delighting crowds from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Sacramento, California.

Postcard from early Pendleton Round-Up 

At the 1910 Cheyenne rodeo where former president Teddy Roosevelt happened to be in attendance, Roosevelt was quoted as saying, "Then there was Buffalo Vernon. I noticed that when he went out ot bulldog the steer he wore a leather bandage around his wrist. I asked him why he wore it and he said he had broken his wrist the day before. Now, it is a pretty hard job for a man with every bone sound to bulldog a steer. Buffalo Vernon did it with a broken wrist." 

Buffalo Vernon was actually Jess Shisler, born in 1884 in Canada. The family farm was reportedly just across the river from Buffalo, New York. Around the time he was twelve, he and a brother went to Buffalo to stay with a sister and ended up changing his last name to Vernon. 

He eventually claimed he was from Texas, and embraced his Buffalo Vernon persona. 

In 1911, he was one of the star attractions at "Pioneer Day" during the Cheyenne rodeo, performing with top names such as Annie Oakley and Ambrose Means who was known as a "daredevil American." 

Buff, as he was known to his friends, went on to perform with some of the top Wild West shows of the day, traveling across North America, Europe and the Orient. He even performed for the King of Belgium.

Then one day he was gored by a bull and sustained a  "hernia wound" that wouldn't  heal, ending his cowboy career. When he disappeared from the rodeo and Wild West scene, people speculated what had happened to him, including everything from being incarcerated to getting shot. 

With his cowboy days behind him, Vernon turned his attention and efforts to working in a mine in Nevada where he remained until his death in 1939. 

Oddly, a number of letters from Buffalo Vernon appeared in the early 1960s, claiming to be from Buff. 

Through the years, a man named Tom Vernon attempted to steal Buffalo Vernon's identity and was at it again. Tom Vernon, a horse-thief, train-robber, convicted felon, and all-around bad guy, even used a copy of a real photograph of Buff to try to authenticate his proof as the well-loved cowboy. Not known for telling the truth, Tom Vernon also claimed to be one of two children born to Cattle Kate ( a fact that was never proved, particularly since she reportedly had no children). 

In spite of spending around three decades serving a sentence in Folsom Prison, Tom Vernon clung to the claim he was the real Buffalo Vernon. He tried to convince reporters he was raised by Indians after his mother died and was given the name because he could ride a saddle bison. He said he worked with Buffalo Billy Cody's Wild West show and was a ward of Annie Oakley, among various other fictitious claims. 

It's rather sad to think of identity theft being a problem way back then, but at least the truth eventually came out and Buffalo Vernon remains one of the early champion cowboys of the rodeo and Wild West performing world.

You can read a wonderful article about Buffalo Vernon that was published in 1963 in True West Magazine here.

~*~

Convinced everyone deserves a happy ending, USA Today best-selling author Shanna Hatfield is out to make it happen, one story at a time. Her sweet historical and contemporary romances combine humor and heart-pumping moments with relatable characters. When this hopeless romantic isn’t writing or indulging in rich, decadent chocolate, Shanna hangs out with her husband, lovingly known as Captain Cavedweller.

Shanna loves to hear from readers. Follow her online at:

ShannaHatfield | Facebook | Newsletter | Pinterest | BookBub | Amazon
 

Putting it all together

The Badlands

The plane begins its descent. The dun-colored ground below is dotted with little, black holes. As we get closer, little animals can be seen scurrying around the holes. "Ground hogs," says the passenger behind me to his wife. For the first time since leaving Chicago the handsome man wearing cowboy boots and a Stetson who is sitting next to me speaks. "No, those are prairie dogs. " (I knew that).

After we land and collect our luggage my husband and I make our way to the rental car lot. Posted on the automatic doors is a sign warning us about rattlesnakes. I start to get excited. West, here we come. When we step outside we are bowled over by the big, blue sky above and the endless fields of golden grassland stretching out before us. The sight sparks a debate between us about which great plains state boasts it's Big Sky Country. Is it South Dakota, where we landed or Montana? We waste some time running around the parking lot looking at car license plates to find said motto (all the while being mindful of rattlesnakes) trying to settle this dispute to no avail. It's Montana, by the way.

Big Sky over Little Bighorn Battlefield, Montana

I'm just a girl with long Midwestern roots, but I've always had a fascination for all things western. I've written both historical and contemporary westerns, relying on images from my computer to create my settings. I have made a number of trips to the southwest, which I love, but never to the other parts west. Writing this blog has sent me on further online excursions. I don't think I knew how much I've really learned until plopping down in South Dakota, jumping up to Montana, and finally ending up in Wyoming.

All during the trip I had the odd sensation of having islands of information in my head, but I couldn't piece them all together. It was overwhelming! As we traveled on, I likened the feeling to quilting in that I not only had pieces to stitch together but layers of time to go through as well. I pictured stitching the top of the quilt to the bottom and connecting it to the layers in between: the history, the personalities, the pivotal moments, not to mention current events such as the Dakota pipeline protests.

This may be a sneaky way of showing you my vacation pictures, but here we go!

Sometime ago I wrote a blog post about sod houses. http://cowboykisses.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-ould-sodhouse.html so when I heard the oldest, intact sod house in existence was on route, I had to see it. We were told it had already closed for the season, but when we got there it was open! The Prairie Homestead sits outside the Badlands of South Dakota. It was a beautiful, sunny day and walking around the homestead, surrounded by fields of grass with the Badlands in the distance, I got some sense of what it would have been like to be one of the early families trying to carve out an existence. When I stepped inside the low, dark house I think what surprised me was how solid it felt. The sod dried like blocks of cement so it wasn't as crumbly or dirty as I imagined, though I shudder to think about spending a cold, rainy day in there.

Inside a sod house, Prairie Homestead, South Dakota

While visiting the Badlands, we stayed in Wall, S.D., home of the famous Wall Drug, which to me previously was just a place where bumper stickers are born. You drive into town and there is billboard after billboard advertising Wall Drug promising free ice water, 5 cent coffee, and if you're on your honeymoon, free donuts. There's not much in Wall besides Wall Drug, which covers almost an entire block, and we were thinking we were not going to be lured into the tourist trap. Well, we actually made two trips there before we left, because it was fun! The stores within one big store were  a blast. We did get free ice water.

Delighted to find free ice water in South Dakota

But somehow along the way to get the free ice water, our baskets got filled with shot glasses, salt and pepper shakers, and playing cards--basically anything with a jackalope printed on it (kids, it's going to be a jackalope themed Xmas this year). My husband even left with a lariat coiled around his shoulder. Typically, we don't have to rustle cattle in the suburbs of Chicago, but the longer the time spent in Wall Drug, the more he needed a lariat. I was excited to find so many items of western wear I'd written about. There were western wear shirts with snaps and yokes and even the shield fronted shirt. And walls and walls of cowboy boots and hats. http://cowboykisses.blogspot.com/2017/09/dress-like-cowboy.html?spref=pi

shield or bib front western shirt at Wall Drug

Next we headed up to Deadwood. The image of Wild Bill Hickok is plastered everywhere.

Wall O'Bill

 You'd think he founded the town. In reality, he was shot and killed on his one and only visit to Deadwood--where he'd only been about two weeks. To add insult to injury, the man has to spend eternity in boot hill next to Calamity Jane, who had a crush on the recently married Bill and requested she be buried next to him. Some reports say he barely knew her and found the whole thing embarrassing.

Mount Moriah Cemetery, Deadwood, S.D. Buffalo Bill wasn't in Deadwood a hot minute before he was shot in the back. Now he is forever associated with the town and doomed to spend eternity next to Calamity Jane.

But one person Wild Bill did know was Buffalo Bill Cody. He even performed in the latter Bill's Wild West Show. http://cowboykisses.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-wild-west-show-shaping-legend.html?spref=pi

Next, on to a place that has acted as a siren call for me for as long as I can remember: Little Bighorn Battlefield. Let me just say it did not disappoint. We spent all day there and it warrants a post all to itself, so I won't go into it too much here. I did a piece for this blog on the evolution of the place over time from a battlefield to a monument and the changes along the way. http://cowboykisses.blogspot.com/2017/08/little-bighorn-national-monument.html?spref=pi

Where they fell 

We left Montana and headed down to Wyoming. First stop Cody! There we meandered the boardwalks of Old Trail Town where buildings of historic note have been moved like the cabin of Jeremiah Johnson and the saloon the Hole in the Wall Gang hung out complete with bullet holes in the swinging doors. When I wrote Margarita and the Hired Gun, I set part of the story in an outlaw hideout, so I was especially excited to see the actual cabin Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid lived while hiding out in Hole in the Wall. A number of impenetrable hideouts were spaced along the Outlaw Trail, Hole in the Wall being one of them. http://sweetheartsofthewest.blogspot.com/2016/04/outlaw-hideouts-and-book-giveaway-by.html (note the book giveaway mentioned in the blog is no longer running).

Old Trail Town, Cody, WY

For me, on this trip the main course was Little Bighorn Battlefield. All stops leading up to that day were appetizers. Now time for dessert! We drove through Yellowstone (in a blizzard) and went to visit fellow author Andrea Downing in Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons! It was so much fun to meet Andi in person. She, in fact, mapped out the route of our journey for us. 

Two authors cutting up under the antlers

It wasn't all fun and games in Jackson Hole. Andi and I were able to finalize a joint project. We re-released our stories that were in the anthology The Good, the Bad, and the Ghostly under the title From the Files of Nat Tremayne: Two Tales of Hauntings in the Old West. The eight stories in the original anthology were all connected by a detective agency specializing in paranormal events. It was a fun project to work on, and I'm happy to see our work live again. This week the book is on sale for $0.99. Get it. It's a good one: spooky, funny, and above all--romantic.

https://www.amazon.com/Files-Nat-Tremayne-Tales-Hauntings-ebook/dp/B0767HWT6S/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

All images courtesy of  me!