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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