Why I wrote No Escape, the Sweetwater Tragedy

 

by Jean Henry Mead

I was researching a Wyoming centennial history book during the mid-1980s, by reading 97 years’ worth of microfilmed newspapers. During that period I read about a young woman named Ellen “Ella” Watson, who had been hanged by cattlemen along with homesteader James Averell. The lynchers claimed that the pair had been running a rural bawdy house and taking cattle for Ellen’s services.

They called Ellen “Cattle Kate” and vilified her by claiming that she was not only a prostitute but a rustler. The Cattlemen’s Association, headquartered in Cheyenne, controlled a local newspaper and reports of the hangings were published worldwide, resulting in considerable condemnation that a woman had been hanged, despite the cattlemen’s claims.

I was mystified by the newspaper reports of 1889, when the murders took place, and decided to write a novel about it, someday. When I learned that Thomas Watson, Ellen’s father, believed the lies, I thought they must be true. A number of writers had written about the hangings from the cattlemen’s point of view, and western films had been produced, portraying Ellen as a pistol packing outlaw. That didn’t jibe with news reports from the Casper Weekly Mail, which published James Averell’s “letters to the editor,” complaining that greedy cattlemen were gobbling up all of Sweetwater Valley, so they could graze their cattle on government land, without paying for it.

James and Ellen had legally filed homesteads under the Desert Land Act, which happened to be located in Albert Bothwell’s hay meadow. Aha, I thought, there’s more to this story than the cattlemen claim. But finding out more about it would require more time and travel than I could spare at that time. Later, George Hufsmith’s nonfiction book was released and I was able to write my novel. Hufsmith had been commissioned to write an opera about the hangings, and was so intrigued that he spent the next 20 years researching and interviewing residents of Sweetwater Valley, who had intimate knowledge of the people involved as well as the real reason for the hangings.

To my surprise, Hufsmith discovered the wedding licence that James and Ellen had filed in Lander, Wyoming, and the fact that they kept their marriage secret, so the government wouldn’t take Ellen’s homestead land away from her. Only single women could own homestead land.

Because I didn’t want to end my novel with the Averell’s deaths, I wrote the story mainly from the viewpoint of a single woman homesteader, a neighbor of the Averells. From my research I learned that some 200,000 single women filed for homestead land of their own. Many of them married before they proved up on their land, but quite a few persevered, and even thrived, alone on their land.

The historical mystery/suspense novel can be purchased on Kindle and will be available in a print edition before the end of March.

Review--Escape: A Wyoming Historical Novel by Jean Henry Mead

Review by Jaden Terrell

Adventure, romance, and a glimpse into the lives of some of the West's most famous outlaws are hallmarks of Jean Henry Mead's Escape: A Wyoming Historical Novel. The book begins with the arrival of outlaws at the cabin where teenaged Andrea Bordeaux lives with her grandparents. Thinking quickly, Andrea's grandmother shears the girl's long blond hair and dresses her in a pair of her grandfather's overalls, transforming her into "Andy" and leading the outlaws to believe she's a lad.

The plan works--to a degree. Andrea's virtue is safe, at least for the moment, but the outlaws injure her grandparents and take "Andy" hostage. Uncertain of her grandparents' fate, Andy must use all her wits to survive and escape. When one of the outlaws, Billy, learns her secret, things seem hopeless, but he agrees to keep her secret. She comes to believe he can be redeemed.

During her ordeal, Andy meets vicious killers and gentleman outlaws, including the famous Butch Cassidy, who promises to let her return home after their next big robbery. But will he keep his promise?

Mead keeps the suspense high throughout the book, which is reminiscent of a Louis L'Amour western, rich with descriptions of frontier life and rugged terrain. The characters are multifaceted and the dialogue authentic. It's clear the author has done her research, which is seamlessly woven into the story. The epilogue, which ties up the loose ends and delves into the fates of Cassidy and his Wild Bunch, was one of my favorite parts of Escape, which is not only an entertaining read, but an informative one.

True Confessions

by Jean Henry Mead

One of my first and favorite interviews was with Betty Evenson, a 5 ft. 1 inch, 69-year-old grandmother who lived alone in the miniscule town of Hiland, Wyoming.

Betty ran the Bright Spot Café, post office and gas station (three pumps in front of the store). Her main customers on the lonely highway between Casper and the Utah border were truckers, bus drivers and occasional vacationers. So she spend her time between customers writing stories for confession magazines.

Betty had that kind of face that invited confidence and people told her their deepest secrets. “I was a like a bartender,” she said. “I never heard anything.” But she wrote about what she heard and sold the stories. Once, she wrote about a regular customer, a truck driver, who told her about his love affair.

“His wife happened to pick up the confession magazine in a beauty shop, and she knew the story had been written about her husband,” Betty said, cringing. “Boy, was he mad.” Another time, a husband and wife confessed to her on separate occasions. Both stories came out back-to-back in the same issue. Fortunately for Betty, neither spouse read the magazine.

Another story was written about a frightening event that happened at the Bright Spot. She was watching “The F.B. I.” on television, so engrossed in the show that she didn’t hear the sound of breaking glass in the front of the store, adjacent to her three-room apartment. Suddenly, the action was taking place in her living room. A well-built, stocking-masked man was pointing a gun at her, threatening to blow off the top of her head if she didn’t open the safe. She was afraid she’d forget the combination, but her trembling fingers managed to unlock it. The bandit made off with $400-$500 in cash, her diamond engagement ring and 50-cent piece collection. But first he ordered her into the bathoom and locked the door.

She listened to the TV until it went off the air, trying to figure a way out of her porcelain prison. The window was tiny, much too small to crawl through, but she yelled out of it each time a car went by. No one heard. At 7 o’clock the following morning the mailman rescued her. Then 64, she incorporated the experience into a story titled “Too Many Men Knew I Lived Alone.” The facts were rearranged and the heroine’s age was sliced by more than half: her 80th story sold to a confession magazine.

Phil Donahue heard about Betty and invited her to appear on his show. She also appeared on Garry Moore’s “To Tell the Truth,” both in 1973. Andrew Malcolm wrote about her in his book, Unknown America and traveling reporters from the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and The New York Times made her famous. Headlines across the country read, “Widow’s Torrid Love Scenes,” “She Sells Gas, Food and Sex,” “Lonely Plains Café Hides Profilic Author,” etc.

Phil Donahue decided to make an example of her. “He felt that confession stories were pornographic,” she said. “When the commercials were on, he let me talk about my life and my nonfiction book about the Bright Spot. Then, as quick as the cameras came on he tried to make me look like a country hick.”

A woman in the audience kept heckling her. “I’m sure she was a plant. She was a real sour pickle, and nobody could shake her from her conviction that I had to have a sick mind to write confessions.”

Betty inherited the Bright Spot from her father, Robert “Dad” Smith, who moved his family around a lot due to business failures, from sheep ranching to furniture retailing, due to overextending credit to his customers. Finally, the Wyoming Highway Department decided to build a road through his property—right through the middle of his milk barn. A philiosophical and romantic man, he replied, “Oh, well, I hate cows anyway.” He then built The Bright Spot in 1923, near the location his dairy barn once stood. As it turned out, the business was the bright spot of his life for it made him prosperous. His customers were just passing through and not seeking credit. Smith’s success was short-lived, however, for he suffered a ruptured appendix in 1931, undergoing surgery on his kitchen table. He survived the operation but succumbed to pneumonia.

Not long before her father’s death, her parents took a vacation, leaving Betty and the hired man alone. “We had to get married,’ Betty said, “to stay there and run the store.” Together, they operated the store and café for many years until Maurice Evenson died, leaving Betty the sole resident of Hiland, Wyoming, and proprietor of the Bright Spot.

(Excerpted from my Denver Post Empire Magazine article in 1979)

The Killing of Wolves

by Jean Henry Mead

The battle again rages over open season on northern Rocky Mountain wolves. Last year the animals were briefly delisted and hunters were shooting them on sight. As a result, conservationists as well as the general public protested the animals’ slaughter and threatened to boycott Wyoming. Tourism is one of the state’s main sources of revenue, and the wolves were once again placed on the endangered species list.

When we first heard of the delisting, we rushed down to the sportsmen's store to buy a wide orange collar for our Australian Sheppard, who likes to dig out of our rural fenced yard. She looks so much like a wolf in profile that we were afraid some trigger happy hunter would target her during one of her dig-out escapades.

When the Game and Fish Commission announced this month that they plan to remove wolves from the endangered species list in Montana and Idaho, but not Wyoming, we sighed with relief. The decision, however, caused a fire storm of anger in the ranching community, which is threatening lawsuits against the federal government.

Either the wolf population in the Rockies has recovered sufficiently to be removed from the endangered list or they haven’t, says the D. C. based Defenders of Wildlife organization. Why should two states bordering Wyoming be delisted and not the cowboy state?

Wyoming has a dual status wolf plan which classifies wolves in the northwestern section of the state as trophy animals that can only be killed by licensed hunters. Some 90% of the wolf population lives in the Yellowstone Park area. The rest of the state has open season on wolves with no limitations. We live in that area.

The Bush Administration handed over management of wolves in the Northern Rockies to individual states in March 2008. In July a Montana judge issued an injunction against the ruling, saying that Game and Fish failed to ensure genetic exchange among the three-state wolf populations, and that they had flip-flopped on Wyoming’s dual status wolf plan.

All three states established trophy game zones for wolves, but Wyoming was the only state to create a predator area for the animals to be shot on sight by anyone, without limits. The ruling was only one of the concerns of Montana Judge Donald Molloy, when he issued the injunction. In October, Judge Molloy vacated the delisting rule, making it void.

At the end of October, the Fish and Wildlife Service reopened the public comment period on its plan to delist wolves, forcing the three states to have a federally approved management “scheme” before the wolves could be delisted. The Fish and Wildlife Service told Wyoming Governor Dave Fruedenthal that it would no longer accept the state’s dual wolf plan unless it complies with government regulations.

So it appears there will be plenty of lawsuits filed in Wyoming this year by ranchers, conservationists and the State of Wyoming.