Spanning Half of a Century by Zina Abbott

As I prepared to focus on my year-end reviews of my 2024 books, I realized my stories had covered a wide span of years. Only seven this year—I planned on the time off in the summer to heal from my full knee replacement surgery—yet I realized what I wrote required quite a bit of research in order to keep them true to the decades and locations in which they took place.

I did not write my books in chronological order. My book with the earliest calendar setting—1855-1858—was Wyatt’s New Bride. My book with the latest calendar setting—1896-1898—was Phoebe. Here are the book timeframe/calendar settings in chronological order:

Between 1850 and 1869, except for very short spurs of rails in Kansas as the Kansas Pacific Railway began to build its line starting in Kansas City, Kansas, there were no transcontinental rail lines between the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers and the Pacific states. All long distance travel was accomplished by steamship, steamboat, carriage, covered wagons (or other wagons), carriages, or horseback/mule teams.

Wyatt in Wyatt’s New Bride (1855-58) probably covered the longest distance when he traveled by steamship, steamboat, and stagecoach from Maine to Sonora, California. It is interesting that Tuolumne County attracted many gold prospectors from Maine and other New England states. When he sent for a bride, she traveled by riverboat, covered wagon, and local freight wagon from Michigan to Sonora, California. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

Lucy and her Aunt Caroline plus the other characters in Lucy (1863-1865) traveled by covered wagon from Lawrence, Kansas, to a foothill community between Placerville and Sly Park, California. The Genoa, Utah Territory, characters who met them in Atchison, Kansas, (Oregon and California Trail travelers stopped using Independence and St. Joseph, Missouri, at that time due to the Civil War) traveled east from Carson City by Stagecoach on the Overland and Central Overland Trails. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

In A Surprise for Christmas (1864-1867), what was left of the North Carolina household of Analia’s family traveled by carriage and steamboat to her aunt’s house in Baltimore, Maryland. A couple of years later, train travel was available as far as Topeka, which was in east Kansas, where Analia met the husband she married by proxy. That was just about the limit of where the Kansas Pacific Railway tracks reached at that time. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

 Starting after the end of the American Civil War, the effort to expand railroad service between the Missouri River west to California began in earnest. That was when the West opened up to many. Since men were the first to head to the West—some to escape the Civil War, some seeking opportunity, or both—the issue of their being a far greater proportion of men to women continued. The number of women who made arrangements to travel to the West seeking husbands and families increased. Although it still had its drawbacks, rail service made travel much quicker. Since train service did not go everywhere, there still was plenty of stagecoach, covered wagon, and steamboat travel.

 

In Florence’s Good Deed (1877), Florence travels from West Virginia to Wisconsin to meet her groom she met through letters, only to end up traveling back after he rejects her. In Columbus, she meets Ash, who was bound for New York. He had traveled by steamboat from Fort Benton, Montana Territory, before taking the train from St. Joseph, Missouri. They continue on the train together to allow Florence to perform what could be a dangerous good deed. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICKHERE

Jocelyn’s Wedding Dilemma starts with a prologue in 1877 and ends in 1886. However, the bulk of the story takes place in 1881. She travels by buggy while still living in Columbus, Ohio. When she leaves to meet her groom, she travels by train. Too back her mother is following close behind. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

Lisbeth in Lemon Cookies by Lisbeth (1883-1884) is not a mail-order bride romance. Her father’s job with the Denver & Rio Grande Railway resulted in the family moving to Cleora, Colorado. However, my hero, Roy Hobart, is also an employee of the same railway—much of the time working track, then later part of the section crew based out of Gunnison, Colorado. He travels between his job and visits to his family—his cousin in Lisbeth’s brother-in-law. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

In the 1890s up until the end of the century, many of the travel conditions of the previous four decades still provided the means of transportation. However, there was a new development—the invention of the automobile.

In Phoebe (1896-1898), her love interest, Graham, embraces the future of the automobile to the point he is anxious to position himself to help finance the development of the oil industry in Oklahoma Territory and neighboring Indian Territory. Part of the conflict involves the attitudes of his father and Phoebe’s parents—both parties insisting they prefer to travel by train and in a well-sprung carriage. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

That is my writing year in review as far as place settings, and how my brides and grooms got from here to there, depending on the decade in which they lived. If you do not already receive my newsletter or follow me on BookBub, I would love for you to sign up to do so. Please click on the links below:

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I wish all a very happy and prosperous New Year. Happy 2025!

 

Ruby Valley, Nevada by Zina Abbott

 

Located in south-central Elko and northern White Pines counties in the state of Nevada is a large basin known as Ruby Valley. As part of the Overland Trail, it played a significant role in the early western development of the United States. The valley starts at Secret Pass and runs south-southwest for about sixty mines to Overland Pass. To the south are the Ruby Mountains, which is a steep escarpment. To the north is the East Humboldt Range and Clover Valley.

Franklin Lake, Nevada

 

The east end of the valley near Franklin Lake is only ten miles wide at the most.

 

At the south end is the Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge, which includes the wetlands of Ruby Valley.

 

The first settlers of Ruby Valley were the nomadic Shoshone tribes which used the area as a winter home. They found it warmer than nearby locations.

Although the California Trail, heavily used after the 1840s, was located just to the north, other wagon trains traveled through this valley on their way west. 

 

The Donner Party passed through the southern end of the valley in 1846. As part of the Hastings Cutoff, they headed over the Overland Pass route across the Ruby Mountains.

In 1855, Howard Egan scouted a transportation route through central Nevada. Although both western Utah and most of Nevada were desolate regions, he found a series of water sources such as spring-fed lakes and springs. He also discovered many passes that made crossing the mostly steep north-south mountain ranges passable.

Interior Ruby Valley Station

 

In 1859, in an effort to find a better transportation route for supplying western forts, his same area was surveyed by Captain James H. Simpson for the U.S. Army. Simpson built a trading post at the south end of Ruby Valley near Overland Pass..

NPS Pony Express Route

Interior Ruby Valley Pony Express Station

In 1860, George Chorpenning built a way station at the same location as the trading post for his mail and stagecoach line. 

Ruby Valley Pony Express Station

The Pony Express and its successor, the Transcontinental Telegraph, also ran through Overland Pass.

Fort Ruby Archeological project

In September 1862, to protect the passage of settlers and these important communication connections with residents of California during the war years, the U.S. Government established Fort Ruby (also known as Camp Ruby) at the east entrance to the pass on the west side of Ruby Lake, which is south of Franklin Lake.

Western Shoshone

In 1863 the U.S. Government signed the Treaty of Ruby Valley with twelve chiefs of the Western Shoshone, who authorized access but did not cede any territory. The US also gained permission to conduct gold mining in this territory, as it needed gold in order to wage war against the Confederacy. The treaty included a promise to pay annuities in the form of goods and livestock of $5000 annually for twenty years to the Western Shoshone. As often happened, the government failed to make any payments after the first year.

Following the American Civil War, John Warren Butterfield and Wells Fargo & Co continued stagecoach and freight wagon service across the West using the Central Overland Trail, which included Ruby Valley and the passes on either end. This soon became more popular choice for many wagons trains headed for the southern gold fields of California.

About 1866, Wells Fargo began to develop agriculture in Ruby Valley to help support its way stations.

The situation changed in the late 1860s when the first transcontinental railroad was routed well to the north of the Overland Trail. The trail fell into disuse. Fort Ruby was closed in September 1869, seven years after it was built.

Lucy, my third book in the Prairie Roses Collection, includes scenes traveled along the Overland Trail, which would have included Ruby Valley. This book is available for sale as an ebook and in paperback, as well as at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

 

 

My next book to be published is Wyatt’s New Bride. This book is available on pre-order and scheduled for release on September 26, 2024.

To find the book description and pre-order link, please CLICK HERE

 

 

 

Sources:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=Nevada+Pony+Express+stations

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

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

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

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

Fish Springs, Utah by Zina Abbott

 

Fish Springs around 17,000 years ago was covered by Lake Bonneville, a massive terminal lake, or inland sea. 

 

Pre-historic Lake Bonneville

Covering almost 20,000 square miles, it was the largest Late Pleistocene paleolake in the Great Basin of western North America. The lake rose and fell several times during its 35,000-year existence based on an increase in precipitation and a decrease in evaporation as a result of cooler temperatures. At its highest level, this lake covered about forty percent of the state of Utah plus parts of Nevada and Idaho.

The Lake declined to present levels in the Great Salt Lake ecosystem around 11,400 years ago. On the mountain ranges that surround what is now the Fish Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, you can see the ancient shorelines, also called benches, where the water levels were stable for extended periods. The Great Salt Lake, Utah Lake, and Sevier Lake are the largest post-Bonneville lakes in the Bonneville basin. 

Middle Spring

However, in the desert region of western Utah, there are other remnants of Bonneville Lake, which include freshwater springs. One of the most impressive is Fish Springs, located in Juab County, which contain fish—the native Utah chub—which are holdovers from the original freshwater lake.

Salt flats outside Fish Springs

Fish Springs is believed to the end of the flowpath of natural springs, which feed the wetlands. Thet are along a linear path at the range front and include North Springs, Deadman Springs, House Springs, Middle Springs, Thomas Springs, South Springs, and Percy Springs. The water of Fish Springs is not suited for human consumption, being warm and highly saline. The above photograph taken just outside the Fish Springs wetlands shows that the region was desert.

 

Goshutes

Archeologists believe the first inhabitants of the Fish Springs wetlands area and the surrounding springs were probably Paleo Archaic, who arrived about 11,000 years ago. These springs were also the ancestral homelands to the nomadic Goshute (Goshiute, Gosiuta) tribe, a Shoshoni-language people believed to have migrated there from the Death Valley, California, region. They occupied the land from the 1400s to the 1900s.

While en route from California to central Utah, Jedediah Smith was the first European explorer to visit the springs in 1827. 

Fish Springs on Pony Express Trail-ctsy NPS

The Central Overland Trail and the Pony Express maintained two waystations at Fish Springs. One was named Fish Springs and the other, about four miles north, was called Warm Springs. It is believed Warm Springs was abandoned because of bad weather.

Thomas Ranch, Fish Springs, Juab County

 In 1861, the first transcontinental telegraph crossed the Fish Springs wetlands. Early in the 20th century, the nation’s first transcontinental automobile road, the Lincoln Highway, cut its way through what is now the Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge. Markers for these routes can be seen at the House Spring and Thomas Ranch.

In my most recently published book, Lucy, part of the Prairie Roses Collection, I set a scene along the Central Overland Trail that followed the old Pony Express Trail (The same company originally owned and operated both). Please CLICK HERE to find an excerpt.

Lucy is currently available as an ebook, for sale or at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. It is also available in paperback. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

 

Sources:

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

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

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

https://www.blm.gov/visit/fish-springs

https://tooeleco.org/recreation-and-tourism/tooele-county-guide-to-historical-attractions/fish-springs-station/

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/linchigh/x-lhc0400/lhc0400

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