Russell Country
This collection of
poems is an echo of the stories
I
heard as a granddaughter of early Montana and
North Dakota pioneers. These poems contain
memories of a time when the great buffalo herds
still thundered through the valleys, when
Cheyenne and Crow still camped around the
Yellowstone River, when mountain men and
cowboys, prospectors and miners, rustlers and
vigilantes still populated Russell Country. Many
of the poems are true accounts of events in the
lives of Emma and Caleb Duncan (Grandparents of
my late husband, Bill Duncan.)
The poem
"Shaney Ridge"
tells about how Caleb Duncan and his brother
George, through hard work, built up a large
ranch in Russell Country; and how George gambled
it away. The poem "Empty
Cradle Sad" tells about the
abduction of Bill's father, when he was an
infant, by a Crow Indian.
Bill was raised on
the family ranch. As a small boy, he and his
brother Pete rode bareback on bucking calves
with Bud Linderman, pretending to be rodeo
stars. ( Bud Linderman later became a World
Champion bareback rider.) Bill was active on the
family ranch. In Spring, he helped drive cattle
about 50 miles from the home base, to higher
leased ranges on the Crow Indian reservation. In
fall, he helped drive them back. He figured
he'd been on about 20 such cattle drives. Many
of the poems were based on accounts in Bill's
life.
The poem "Rustler's
Roost" is about a band of
rustlers that operated out of the Big Horn
Mountains. As head of a nine member crew that
surveyed the Big Horn Mountains prior to the
construction of the Yellowtail Dam, Bill
traveled through country that few white people
have ever seen. In the five months they were
there, they lived chiefly off of the abundant
game to be found in the Bighorns. In a very
remote section of the Big Horns, the crew came
across a narrow pass into the canyon. It had a
heavy chain attached to a hook in the granite
wall. It was stretched across the pass,
and across the adjacent river. Past the
boulders, there was a pathway to a fertile
plateau. It had long been rumored that there
was a band of rustlers that operated out of the
Big Horn Mountains; and this apparently was the
place. The entire area is now under water; and
is part of the Yellowtail Dam Reservoir. Bill
was fortunate to have seen this bit of Montana
history and to have experienced the wild west in
a way that few people living today have known.
This book is
$9.95.
Rodeo
Country
The author,
Bette Wolf Duncan, grew up in southeastern
Montana, not far from the Wyoming border. This
is Rodeo Country; and she celebrates this rich
western heritage with poems and photos of
regional rodeo champions. She is the
granddaughter of early Montana and North Dakota
pioneers; and she was married to a former cowboy
whose grandparents were among the earliest
ranchers in southeast Montana. She can still
hear with her heart the pioneers tales of
relatives and other old-timers. This book is the
echo of their tales and of good times
remembered.
RODEO COUNTRY contains a collection of
poetry and written accounts that embody much of
the history and events that shaped Montana and
Wyoming: the westward movement of the covered
wagons; Buffalo Bill Cody
and his Wild West Show; data and
poem about Earl Durand; Wyoming's enactment of
the Suffrage Act (the first state to do so);
the Mormon handcart trek through Wyoming;
Black Sunday (April 14, 1935) and the dust
bowl; the Johnson County War; the Coal Mine
Disaster at Bearcreek, MT; the disastrous winter
of 1885-1886;the migration of the homesteaders
(the Honyockers) from about 1910 to 1922, in
large portions of Montana and Wyoming; and
the recession that hit
farms/ranches in the 1980s. And of course the
book features bios, stats, photos and poetry
about the rodeo champions from Montana and
Wyoming.
RODEO COUNTRY received the 2007
Will Rogers Medallion Award for Outstanding
Achievement in the Publishing of Cowboy Poetry.
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The book is $12.95.
You can order RUSSELL COUNTRY
and/or RODEO COUNTRY
by snail mail:
B Bar D Publications
1755 S.E. 108th
Runnells, IA 50237
(515) 966 2461
Or by
e-mail:
wacobelle@msn.com
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