Can a man get so hopelessly lost...

I’ve been researching what I call Pathfinders for a while.

I am trying to get a real overview of what it was really like to try and get through the Rocky Mountains the first time.

Finding a route was a big part of the Louis and Clark Expedition. And they barely survived it and then only with the help of native people who were miraculously Sacagawea’s family.

John C Fremont was tasked with finding a winter passage through a farther south region of the Rockies, with Kit Carson. Okay, these guys were GOOD. But even good as they were, it took him three tries--three winters. 
On his first try he got eveyone out alive. 
His second, he lost ten men to cold and hunger and other dangers.
Third try...he made it through.

James Beckworth (or Beckwourth) was the guy who opened the California Trail. He found a way from Reno Nevada to San Francisco. This is just exactly where my story is set.

Jim Coulter and Sacagawea were with Louis and Clark. Coulter turned around at the end of the expedition and went back. He's believed to be the first man to see Yellowstone. But he was such a known story spinner no one believed him. FOR YEARS. When I research, all the maps you see are either too close or two far. All of them have major four lane highways. All of them have ME and my CELL PHONE.

Bridger walked the Rocky Mountains north from Southern Colorado to Canada. His story about leaving a man behind believed dead, is part of the movie (or a fictionalized version of the movie) The Revenant. 

Of course we don't have pictures and online bios of all the guys who did this and DIED.

My premise is, can a really trail savvy guy, in about 1850, get so lost he just plain can’t get out of the mountains? He ends up just living there. By the time he finds his way out he’s settled and doesn’t leave.

I’ve been reading about the Donner Party.

I’ve got a picture, taken at the museum beneath the St. Louis Arch that says something like, “Many pioneers headed west with directions that covered one side of a sheet of paper. That is IT!

Now most wagon trains had a guide, a trail boss, or scouts, men who knew where they were going. But what if somehow you ended up on your own? What if your wagon train was set upon by thieves and everyone died and you alone survived?

Mary Connealy would've fallen off the covered wagon and DIED.

What if the guide died or ran off?

The trail itself would probably be visible, wouldn’t it? Or are some of them less traveled? The Donner Party was trying a new and little known trail so we know it happened.

A man who knew the woods would find trails, but out there? With millions of acres uninhabited, those trails would be game trails. You could walk on them and they’d probably lead around cliffs and lead to water, but could you get anywhere? It’s a good bet a deer will never ever make a trail that leads to town.

Today, I'm talking research

Today I thought I’d talk about research, how I try and track these things down.

I always start with Wikipedia for research. I’ve heard not to trust Wiki as the final answer, but I’ve also found really invaluable sources through there. A lot of times they’ll mention where they get info.

One example: http://a.co/9xlgV3p The Reckless Breed of Men a twenty year old book about fur trappers, only available used now. I got my copy for about $7.

Another one I particularly loved, Jim White's Own Story: The Discovery and History of Carlsbad Caverns. Jim White is the man who discovered Carlsbad Cavern and it took him TWENTY YEARS to convince people there was really a huge cavern down this hole in the ground. It was so far from any road, this was in about 1920, so there were roads and cars around, but still no one would believe him.

Anyway, when I bought this book, old, used, it was

SIGNED by Jim White. I just loved that.

So Wikipedia leads me to other sources, and that includes books and also other websites.

I also use Google Maps and transform it to Google Earth so I can get a look at the terrain.

I find old maps online—I use maps of old trails a lot. You can find them with Oregon Trail, California Trail, Santa Fe Trail and all sorts of off shoots of each. I open them and modern maps and try to compare roads now to trails then. Did you know that I-80 that cuts all the way across the country, follows the Oregon Trail? The Oregon Trail followed the Platte River, then the Transcontinental Railway followed the Oregon Trail until it curved off and followed the Mormon Trail. And now Interstate 80 follows the Oregon Trail.

People went that way not because someone had broken a trail, but because it WAS a trail. Does that make sense? They went the way that worked. They used the same passes because there were passes.

I will go to Amazon and search up say…Jim White’s book, after finding there is a book through Wikipedia, then I buy that book and good old Amazon wants to help me spend my money so they’ll toss other books at me and I can hunt around.

I’m working in the Sierra Nevada Mountains right now near Lake Tahoe and I found out Mark Twain lived and worked near Tahoe for quite a while. Reading his writing about it has really helped me get the big picture.

I also like to find novels. Yes, fiction, that is set in the place I want my books. The Louis L’Amour books in our local library all have maps in the front.

When I’m buying these books I remind myself that it’s a lot less expensive than a research trip…which I never EVER get to take!!!

What I’m really having trouble with though is the VASTNESS. It’s so hard to quite imagine the brutally hard work of riding a horse or a wagon over a mountain.

The original Oregon Trail had no passage wide enough for a wagon, a horse could get through, but not a wagon, so they’d have to lower the wagons over cliffs on ropes. 

It would be days of hard labor to get wagon after wagon lowered. And maybe the whole train would make progress of about 100 feet in three days.

I don’t mind doing this. I have always loved research but in some ways I hate it too, because it’s such a time sink. I can get lost for hours tracking down details and not get a word written in my book. But I justify the time now because I realize I’ve gotten a lot of ideas for the NEXT series while researching the current one.
In fact I think I've gone on too long in this post and I apologize for that, but it's hard to imagine that ANYONE isn't fascinated by this. And yes, it's possible, I live in my own little dream world. 

What do you do for research? Where do you look? Is it on line? Or do you set your books right near you so you know what things are like? Does ANYONE ever get to go on a research trip?

Let’s talk about all the tricks of the trade in researching a book.

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LONG TIME GONE

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Connealy Combines Western Action and Charming Historical Romance
The Boden clan thought their problems had ended with the death of a dangerous enemy, but have they truly uncovered the real plot to take their New Mexico ranch? Rancher Justin Boden is now in charge. He is normally an unshakable and rugged man, but with his brother, Cole, shot and in mortal danger, even a tough man faces doubts. And it doesn't help that Angie DuPree, the assistant to the doctor trying to save Cole, is as distracting a woman as Justin ever laid eyes on.