MY PERSONAL WEST
CHARLES ALLEN GRAMLICH
Six-Gun Justice asked a posse of contemporary western
scribes why it is they write about The West. What qualities of history,
culture, or geography inspire them to spin yarns set west of the 100th
meridian. The answer from award-winning author Charles Allen Gramlich (aka: Tyler Boone) is below...
From a young age I was a reader, and westerns, particularly
Louis L’Amour westerns, were a mainstay of my diet. L’Amour was good with his
history but his work had an unintended side effect on me. Until I was almost
fifteen years old my idea of the West was as existing out there, meaning Texas,
Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado. I didn’t know how close the real west was to my
backyard.
Fort Smith, Arkansas, less than thirty miles from my
hometown of Charleston, Arkansas, was a major hub for western travel during the
period between 1817 and 1896. The Trail of Tears ended at Fort Smith, just
before the Cherokee and many other Native Americans crossed the river into what
was then called the Oklahoma Territory. There’s still an historic site
overlooking the original Fort Smith where the Trail ended.
The Oklahoma Territory was more wild and wooly than
Tombstone or Dodge City in its day, and the court that had to enforce the laws
in the Territory was centered at Fort Smith. Between 1873 and 1896, Eighty-six
men were hung on the gallows in Fort Smith, seventy-nine under the reign of
Judge Isaac Charles Parker, known as the Hanging Judge. Parker often hung five
or six men at a time. He tried to hang a total of 160 (four of them women), but
for various reasons only managed to get seventy-nine. I’ve seen the
reconstruction of the gallows in Fort Smith, at the museum there, and even in
the bright sunlight of over a century later it still gives you a chill.
Some of the outlaws hung in Fort Smith back in the day
included the notorious Crawford Goldsby (better known as Cherokee Bill), who
rode with the Cook Gang and was said to have murdered seven people. The
deserter William Finch was hung there, after he killed two soldiers who were
bringing him to trial for desertion. And Calvin James had his neck stretched in
Fort Smith after he killed a traveling companion for four gallons of whiskey.
On July 1, 1896, the entire Rufus Buck gang was hung together after going on a
wild spree of murder and rape. Considering the reputation of the jail in Fort
Smith, which was known as Hell on the Border, you have to wonder if some of the
condemned were ready to go to the gallows rather than stay in that jail.
Cherokee Bill was said to have remarked on his way to the rope, This is about
as good a day to die as any.
Belle Starr lived in the Oklahoma Territory for some time,
and once appeared before Judge Parker. She and her husband, Sam Starr, a
Cherokee, were found guilty of horse theft and Belle spent nine months in
prison for it. That may well have been the least of Belle’s crimes. In 1889,
Belle was ambushed and killed with a shotgun while out riding in the Territory.
The crime was never solved, although many suspected her son. Belle’s daughter
was Pearl Starr, who was also the daughter of Cole Younger.
It’s amazing how little many of us know about the history
of the places where we live. I passed quite a few years before I understood
that the Old West was all around me right there in Arkansas. Only a thin veil
of time separated me from that world, a veil that history and my own
imagination could pull aside for me.
Charles Gramlich has an M.A. and PhD in Experimental
Psychology. He is an ex-member of REHupa, the Robert E. Howard United Press Association,
and is an Editor of The Dark Man, the Journal of Robert E. Howard Studies.
Written under the pen name, Tyler Boone, his recent western novel, The Scarred
One, has garnered solid five-star Amazon reviews.
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CONTRIBUTOR ~ RICHARD PROSCH
Cool to see this. I had fun writing it. Thanks for posting!
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