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The Dale Creek Bridge in southeastern Wyoming figures in the first two books of The Iron Horse Chronicles. The Union Pacific Railroad completed the timber trestle in the spring of 1868. The bridge was the highest required on the Union Pacific line. The trestle rose 126 feet above the streambed and stretched 700 feet to span the gap at the top of the canyon. A UP engineer said “it was a big bridge for a small brook that one could easily step over.” Abraham Lincoln is quoted as describing a similar bridge that crossed the Potomac River during the Civil War as being built of “beanpoles and cornstalks.”
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In the first book, Eagle Talons, Will Braddock is a hunter in 1867 for his uncle’s survey team working in the canyon prior to bridge construction. Here, Will encounters the band of Cheyennes who later kidnap Jenny McNabb, traveling in her family’s covered wagon from Virginia Dale Station, Colorado. You can read what I wrote on April 18, 2016, about this famous stagecoach station by clicking on the Archives tab in the right margin.
In Bear Claws, the second book, Will returns to the Laramie Range for a celebration on April 16, 1868, that the Union Pacific held to commemorate laying tracks over Sherman Summit. At 8,247 feet it was the highest point achieved in building the first transcontinental railroad. It surpassed the 7,056-foot elevation at Donner Pass, California, which was the highest point on the Central Pacific Railroad.
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Will’s train would have slowed to four miles per hour to creep over the wooden trestle, twenty miles west of Sherman Summit. The reduced speed was not because of concern about the strength of the material used in the bridge, but for the strong winds whistling down the canyon. The railroad anchored the trestle to the canyon floor with guy wires to diminish the swaying. Still, with the threat that the wind could blow the lightweight cars off the track, the crossing was described as terrifying.
In Bear Claws, Will also sees the “Lone Tree” around which the UP curved the tracks in order not to have to cut down the only tree growing on the windswept summit. The railroad no longer follows the original route that Will Braddock knew. The Dale Creek Bridge is gone. The “hell on wheels” town of Sherman Summit no longer exists. The limber pine, which could be as old as 2,000 years, does exist and stands between the westbound and eastbound lanes of I-80. Stopping at this turnoff on the Interstate, one gets a feel for what Will and his friends experienced when the trains sped westward at forty miles per hour until the engineer had to apply the brakes at the Dale Creek Bridge.
The Wyoming State Historical Society Awards Committee informed me this past week that Bear Claws, The Iron Horse Chronicles–Book Two has been selected to receive an award in the Publications Category for 2016. The award will be presented at a luncheon to be held in Buffalo, Wyoming, during the Society’s annual meeting on Saturday, September 10, 2016. I plan to be there.
The location is fortuitous because Buffalo is sixteen miles from Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site where I want to do additional research on the book I am currently writing. This novel takes place in 1866 along the famous Bozeman Trail. I visited Fort Phil Kearny in 2010, but my ongoing research has generated questions that can best be answered by walking the ground and talking to local experts.
I look forward to the trip for three reasons. First, to receive an award from the Wyoming State Historical Society for Bear Claws is thrilling and gratifying. Second, to visit the site again where my characters will act out their scenes will be helpful and rewarding. Third, I always enjoy traveling through the beautiful state of Wyoming.
While we enjoyed the fine food and a buttery chardonnay, we reminisced about the many other places where we had lived when celebrating previous anniversaries: Orange County, California; Denver, Colorado; Honolulu, Hawaii; the Sinai Desert, Egypt; the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia.
Bear Claws, The Iron Horse Chronicles–Book Two, has been selected as a finalist for the 2016 Will Rogers Medallion Award in the category for Younger Readers. Eagle Talons, the first book in the trilogy about Will Braddock and his quest to determine his own destiny at the time of the building of the transcontinental railroad, won the Bronze Will Rogers Medallion Award in 2015 in the Younger Readers’ category.
I plan to go to Fort Worth, Texas, to participate in the festivities and award ceremony on October 29, 2016, when the medallions will be awarded. I wrote about my experience and posted this photo last year when I received the Bronze Medal for Eagle Talons. Click the Archives button in the sidebar to see my post from October 26, 2015.
Western Writers of America awarded the 2016 Spur Awards to the winners Saturday night, June 25, at its annual convention in Cheyenne, Wyoming. I want to give a big shout out to all the winners. I am proud to be a member of WWA, and pleased to say that I know most of the winners personally. I was not able to attend this year’s convention, but I was with them all in spirit this past week while they surely enjoyed another great convention.
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I want to offer special congratulations to fellow WWA member Lucia St. Clair Robson. She received the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Contributions to Western Literature. 
If you have read my book Eagle Talons, The Iron Horse Chronicles–Book One, you will recall she wrote the following, wonderful blurb for my book’s cover:
Wyoming History News reviewed Bear Claws, The Iron Horse Chronicles–Book Two in its June 2016 issue. The News is published ten times a year for members of the Wyoming State Historical Society. Distribution is to members only, and no copies are sold or made available for sale.
Bear Claws has been accepted by the Wyoming State Historical Society for a possible award this year, Notifications to winners will be made the end of July. Here’s hoping!
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