Dac Crossley's Western Blog

The Staked Plain

Francis X. Tolbert’s second novel, The Staked Plain, tells the story of a white blacksmith living among the Comanche Indians in the 1870s. First published in 1958, its based on his interviews with old timers – white and Indian alike – while a student at Texas Tech and later. 

The novel is often reprinted, and it’s worth the price, but it’s also available “used” on Amazon. I think it’s a realistic view of life among the Comanches and Kiowas, the best I’ve seen yet. Tolbert is a story-teller, and he blends fact into his fiction in a manner that makes me jealous. Tolbert’s book is the best glimpse we’re likely to get, of a vanished way of life.

The book was nationally acclaimed when it appeared, but was not immediately popular in Texas. It dealt casually with the sex life of the Comanches, and that didn’t meet with approval of some Texans. Comanches making love on horseback? Tolbert tells a straight-forward story. Those Indians were savage, living by their own rules, and stories about tortured captives were recounted by old timers in my youth. However you view the Comanches and Kiowas, it’s clear that coexistence with them was impossible.

For you non-Texans: The Llano is that high plain, roughly sitting between I-40 on the north (Amarillo) and I-20 on the south. The vast grassland there was the final refuge of the horse Indians in Texas. Ranald Mackenzie finally defeated the Comanches, not in battle, but by destroying their horse herd. After that, the Indians walked to the reservation at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. 

Tolbert’s book raises two questions for me. He insists that some of his book characters were real, and this includes his hero, Lonnie (Llano Estacado) Nabors, the girl gambler Dulce Deno, and an army scout for Mackenzie, named Woman. However, I can’t find any reference elsewhere to any one of those three. Somebody help me with this one. Those characters are fascinating.

And – why did Coronado name the area Llano Estacado? In school we thought that Coronado might have driven stakes into the prairie. Or, perhaps, the yucca stalks might have been responsible. More recently, “estacado” has been translated as meaning “palisades.” That would have been Coronado’s view of the caprock as he trekked along the Canadian River. I can relate to that – the view of the caprock as Larry C. and I approached it at Post, Texas. On our way to Lubbock and Texas Tech.

If you like Western fiction that rings with truth, you won't find any better than Tolbert's novel, The Staked Plain.

dac -  5/23/2008 

 

 

Mud Daubers in Luckenbach, Texas

Hondo Crouch bought the town of Luckenbach in 1971 (population: three, plus one parking meter). He liked celebrations. Among other festivals, he fêted the ‘Return of the Mud Daubers.’

Mud daubers played a part in my career in ecology at Oak Ridge National Lab. A less festive part.

On the Oak Ridge Reservation, engineers dug some large earthen pits in the ground, for experimental studies of liquid radioactive wastes. Instruments that monitored the levels of radioactivity sat alongside the pits, sheltered in little wooden boxes. Mud daubers discovered them and built their mud nests inside the boxes. Sometimes they used radioactive mud from the waste pits. The instruments soon began to measure the radioactivity of the mud dauber nests; it overpowered the emanations from the waste pits. The nests had to be removed periodically.

Here’s the fun part. One type of wasp, the black-and-yellow dauber, builds a ‘blob’ nest, rather shapeless. The black-and-blue dauber constructs a neat ‘pipe organ’ nest, rows of clay tubes. (You’ve probably seen both of these types in your garage). Both wasps used the instrument shelters. Some of the “blob” nests were radioactive. But the ‘pipe organ’ nests weren’t. None of them were radioactive. Never.

And we wondered – could the black-and-blue dauber detect waves of radiation, and avoid them? Could they sense atomic radiation? Not a silly idea; wasps can see ultraviolet radiation that’s invisible to us. Maybe they could actually 'see' atomic radiation.

My postdoc, Alvin Shinn, put the daubers in cages and offered them mud. The Black-and-yellow wasp snatched up wads of mud and made nests from it. The black-and-blue dauber carefully selected a little here and a little there; it was a fastidious user of mud. It selected only one type of clay, very carefully. It didn’t like the coarse, radioactive mud.

Was that the answer? The pipe organ builder would use only pure clays? The question remains in my mind. Was the wasp using chemical cues to select clays? Or could it, perhaps, detect radioactivity? Wasps can dig, they can build earthen nests. They can use tools. Are they in line to be the next dominant animals on our planet?

How Did Davy Crockett Die?

In 1955, Walt Disney gave us “Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.” Fess Parker will always be Davy Crockett, at least for some of us. (Certainly not John Wayne, who was always a cowboy.). The historian William C. Davis (“Three Roads to the Alamo) gave us Davy with all his warts and his virtues. A hero who died furiously defending the Alamo.

While we were watching Fess Parker on the screen, Carmen Perry was laboring over a translation of a difficult old document – the diary of a Mexican army officer who accompanied Santa Anna in Texas. Now available as “With Santa Anna in Texas,” the published translation avers that Davy Crockett was one of several Alamo defenders who surrendered! And was executed by the order of the Generalissimo.

This was a slap in the face to Texans! Surely Davy did not surrender. The troops rallied and began to find flaws in the diary and its translation. The first publication date of de la Pena’s diary was cited as 1836 in Matamoros – but – the diary references a report published in 1838! Surely the diary was a fraud. The 1836 – 1838 discrepancy was cited by Walter Lord (“A Time to Stand), author of the most respected account of the Alamo tragedy.

The “dates” issue was fully resolved later – a mistake by a translator – but many Texans still doubt that the de la Pena account is accurate.

Still, the question haunts us. There were other accounts to support the surrender theory, diaries and letters by other Mexican offers have surfaced. Did Santa Anna know who Davy Crockett was? Maybe not. Travis and Bowie were known in Mexico. Crockett was known in the U.S.

How many survivors in the Alamo? At least fourteen, suggests Walter Lord. Three Americans (Susanna Dickinson, her daughter Angelina, and Travis’s slave Joe) as well as ten Mexican women and children. Brigido Guerrero, a member of the garrison, convinced Mexican soldiers that he was a prisoner of the Texans. One Henry Warnell may have lived, but died soon from wounds. And there are other possibilities, lost in time. None of the survivors mentioned a Crockett surrender.

I’ve listed the three books – Davis’s “Three Roads,” Perry’s translation of the De la Pena diary, and Walter Lord’s “A Time to Stand” on my Shelfari shelf. If you’re a Texan – “A time to Stand” is a must read. The Crockett controversy is -- well -- put on the shelf.

dac

5/13/2008

More News -- Guns Across the Rio

A pleasant surprise – Guns Across the Rio is a finalist in the National Indie Excellence 2008 Book Awards. These awards are for independently published books, evaluated by a panel of experts from all aspects – editing, marketing, publicity and design. Permit me to crow gently.

More good news – Guns Across the Rio will soon be available in the Alamo Museum and Gift Shop. When Tometta Hentz and I were there back in October, we dropped off a copy of the book for them to consider. Okay, they like it and want to stock it. So, you fortunate people in San Antonio will be able to pick up one at any time. (You can still get one from me, personally autographed, fourteen dollars postpaid).

Paige and I signed books in Brunswick, Georgia, down on the coast this past weekend. We stayed in a B&B on St Simon’s Island. I thought of the East Texas coast: Big live oaks dripping with Spanish moss. Palm trees. Shorts and flowered shirts. Beer on the deck. I like this book signing stuff!

Keep checking the web site – Janice is fine-tuning it.

www.daccrossley.com.

And finally – here’s an old expression for you. Wheeligo Girls. Remember that one?

Cinco de Mayo!

On May 5, 1862, a Mexican army under the command of Texas-born General Ygnacio Zaragosa defeated a larger French army force in the battle of Puebla. The French assaulted Fort Guadalupe but were repelled with major loss of life. (I'll bet they didn't call him 'Nacho.')

France was anxious to collect on debts owed by Mexico, and invaded under that pretext, landing at Veracruz. (Abraham Lincoln was sympathetic to the Mexican cause, but had his hands full at the time.) The French Emperor, Napoleon III, was determined to conquer. He decided to put a Hapsburg Prince, Maximilian, on a Mexican throne. Ultimately he failed and Maximilian was defeated and executed.

The entire story is well told by Jasper Ridley in “Maximilian and Juarez” (see my Shelfari bookshelf).

The battle of Puebla was but a temporary setback for the French, who went ahead to take Mexico City. The victory was heartening for the Mexicans who were fighting against a superior army. President Porfirio Diaz decreed that May 5, Cinco de Mayo, should rank as a holiday along with Mexican Independence Day, September 15th.

The thing is – I don’t remember a Cinco de Mayo celebration when I was growing up in Texas. Does anybody remember one? The first I remember was here in Athens, about 30 years ago, a lawn party. We had Armadillidium races (pill bugs), a wetback T-shirt contest, and cow chip tossing. And shots of Tequila and jalapeno peppers.

And I ask – is the modern celebration of Cinco de Mayo here, in the U.S., merely a creation of the vendors of Joe Quervo tequila?

On a Personal Note ---

Thanks to those of you who responded to the recent post on the Santa Fe expedition. Bob G. pointed out that Larry McMurty’s novel, Dead Mans Walk, was a fictionized account. Andres Resendez (Changing National Identities at the Frontier) gave a thorough description of the expedition. See my bookshelf on Shelfari.

And, there’s a lot more to New Mexico history than I mentioned in that brief blog post. Open Amazon and search “Pueblo Revolt” for a list of books. (I buy ‘used’ on Amazon where possible).

BookSurge offered to send Paige Cummings (Under the Liberty Oak) and me to BookExpo in Los Angeles, May 30. I bagged it; I am happy with self-publishing and print-on-demand.

I’m speaking at Learning in Retirement, a University of Georgia program, next week.

Sales of Guns Across the Rio are still trickling in from Amazon. The season is upon us for more book signings. Farmer’s Markets and local fares are opening. Paige and I will be at Brunswick, Georgia, next weekend.

If you’d prefer a personalized, signed copy of Guns, send me a check for fourteen dollars and I’ll stick one in the mail. (D. A. Crossley, Jr., P. O. Box 903, Athens, Georgia, 30603-0903).

A sequel to Guns is under construction! Working title: Return of the Texas Ranger. I’ll keep you all in the loop.

The website our local writer’s conference, the HAWC, is up and running. Check http://hawcnews.blogspot.com/ for a story about one of my recent book signings.

My website is nearly ready, thanks to the marvelous efforts of Janice S. I tried to construct my own website. A professional site is so much better! Watch for mine. If you like, I can put you in touch with Janice.

Please tell me if you like Dac Crossley’s Western Blog. Any changes you’d prefer? Topics of interest? Just post a response on the blog. I’ve already had two requests for a Cinco de Mayo post, so stay tuned!

Dac