Uncommon History

Now, to answer the question you have all been asking (Where have you been?).

Over the last several weeks I have been preparing to take our troop of 11 Boy Scouts to a week of summer camp. This is never a small feat in matters of preparation and execution. Now that I am home, I can jubilantly exclaim that not only was the week a success, but the experience was a blast!

There are many, many stories to be told, but for now I will simply state, for the record, that Buffalo Trails Scout Ranch is without a doubt one of the best summer camps in the United States of America. I never in my wildest dreams thought there was such rugged beauty awaiting my discovery in Texas.

Wednesday morning, I rousted five of our scouts out of bed at 4:30 am for the camp’s “Sunrise Hike.” This turned out to be a rapid hike, in complete darkness, one mile or so up a steep and rocky trail. We accomplished the hike in less than 40 minutes and found ourselves seated on a grassy plateau awaiting the arrival of the sun.

When the sun began to turn the morning sky a light pink, I prepared my camera for its arrival. Much to my surprise, there was a real treat awaiting all of us that came up the mountain. Words alone cannot describe what we experienced, but a picture will do a little more justice.

If that wasn’t enough to make my week worthwhile, the boys worked against difficult odds to acheive a high enough score to qualify for Troop of the Day on Friday. Yep, they pulled it off on the very last full day of camp. I will never forget the look of pride and joy when they hoisted their own troop flag high alongside the camp colors.

The week flew by and I was a little dismayed at the thought of leaving the beauty and enchantment of BTSR behind. We eventually made it home and our stories will be resounded for many years to come. Thank you Troop 729 for a wonderful and memorable Summer Camp 2009!

Lightning-fast gunfights, dry and dusty trails, greedy ranchers and over confident gunfighters. These things, and more, make up the stories of the Old West. From time-to-time I hear that these stories are outdated and irrelevant. My heart aches when I my ears meet with such comments. Not because I wish it weren’t so, but because I truly believe it isn’t true at all. The timeless stories of The Great American West are more than simple stories.

The lives lived by many of the characters, while fictionalized, are very real. Certainly particular authors utilize artistic license to bring more readability to the lives of their heroes and villains, but the underlying stories come from the heart of the American Spirit. No matter how you feel today, you can pick up one of these great stories and immerse yourself in the lives of pioneering men and women. By the end of most stories, you feel good about yourself, your country and the future in general. That is what the Western brings to the table.

A quick search on the website for a popular online bookstore shows that in 2008, numerous Western fiction novels were published. Granted that a large number of these are reprints of popular authors such as Louis L’Amour, Les Savage and Zane Grey, but the fact remains that Westerns remain a popular choice for readers.

I was personally introduced to stories of the Old West while serving in the United States Navy. I came across a well-worn copy of a Louis L’Amour title set in his popular Sackett series. I was so hooked that I went to a local bookstore and purchased as many of the Sackett series as I could on my meager salary. I chomped my way through these very quickly and found myself wanting more.

I didn’t ask myself why they appealed to me back then, but recently I have been asking myself why I still write Western short-stories and love to read those written by others. I soon realized that as times get harder, I want to read about people who suffered hardships equal to or greater than my own, just to reassure myself that we all can endure.

I do hope to some day find my own novels upon the shelves at bookstores and in people’s homes alongside the likes of my literary heroes. Until then, the following is a listing of some of my favorite Western novel favorites. This list is by no means exhaustive, but a sampling of some of the great stories that remain in my collective memory.