Memorable Details

 

Colorado author MARGARET COEL recently launched “A Dozen on Denver,” a short story series for the Rocky Mountain News. The Rocky is celebrating its own 150^th birthday along with that of the city of Denver. Eleven writers were invited to create stories set in their chosen decades of Denver history. The paper sponsored a writing contest to find the twelfth story – winner to be announced when the final story is published. 

Margaret delivered a richly detailed story about a new widow seeking a way to support herself and her small daughter in early day Denver. “Yellow Roses” opens with an invitation to join the last the wagon train returning to St. Louis before winter sets in. The “go-backs,” people who found life in the West too difficult and decided to go home, said they were going “back to the states.”

Back to the states! Margaret’s little research detail tickled my mind after I finished her story. Gold seekers who came West in 1859 did indeed leave the states behind when they came to the Rocky Mountains. The State of Missouri must have seemed like the edge of civilization when people set out in wagons, on horseback, and on foot across the vast prairie. What became Colorado was a jigsaw puzzle where the Territories of Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, and New Mexico met on the MAP.

Thanks, Margaret, for a great story with a memorable detail.

Read an interview with MARGARET COELor listen to an audio of “YELLOW ROSES.”

Crossing the Col to Denver

Every weekday morning I look forward to finding a new word in my inbox. No, I don’t hunt treasure in my email messages. My daily word is delivered by A.Word.A.Day. Today’s word is “col”. From the French col and the Latin collum – both meaning “neck” – it is a term for a mountain pass. This week’s theme is words from geology and geography: archipelago, monadnock, shoal, and now col. My daily word message includes pronunciation, meaning, etymology, and a sample of current usage. I keep a file of the unique words I would like to use in my writing.

            Need a daily writing prompt to get you going? Subscribe to the free A.Word.A.Day

 

Let’s Ride!

At age eight, I decided to become a cowgirl like Dale Evans. I watched her on television every Saturday morning. Riding a pale horse named Buttermilk, my heroine joined her famous husband, Roy Rogers, in new adventures every week. In my official Dale Evans outfit (a fake cowhide skirt and vest with hat and gunbelt), I rode my imaginary horse to adventure in my Southern Indiana backyard.

Of course, I grew up to realize those shows were only stories and the West was no longer the wild, untamed place of Saturday morning serials. Still, I packed up and moved to Colorado the day after college graduation. I found a job in Denver and began to read Colorado history. That is where I first heard of Chipeta, a Ute Indian woman born in 1844 when the American Southwest was still Mexican Territory.

One morning in the summer of 1995, I sat up in bed and said, “I’m going to write a biography of Chipeta.” Like Dale Evans, Chipeta was known because of a famous husband, Chief Ouray of the Utes. I wanted to discover the woman herself, the woman who was so special that streets, parks, schools, and natural landmarks in Colorado and surrounding states bear her name. My search took eight years and many hundreds of miles. The result was Chipeta: Queen of the Utes (Western Reflections Publishing, 2003; P. David Smith co-author). In the fall of 2008, Filter Press released Chipeta: Ute Peacemaker, a biography for children in the Now You Know Bio series.   

In this blog I plan to share research experiences and tidbits from my Chipeta files (which continue to grow). I hope to host other writers for discussions of research and writing. So, come on along for the ride – and leave your trail of comments.