For those of you who asked about the Star Valley Book, my mother said she shipped the last of them to Hastings Gift Store P.O. Box 1710 Afton, Wyo 83110 (307 -886- 3503).We wrote it in 1989 and now the 3rd printing is sold out. I think there are about 3,000 books floating around. The first edition had a gray cover with red printing. On the second, we changed to the buff and brown cover. The last edition has a real nice shiny finish on the cover.
When you're looking at boxes of inventory sitting in the closet, you wonder if it will ever sell or if you will end up papering the walls with it. We are very grateful that people took an interest and seem to enjoy it.
Writing the book took a couple of years. Dad always maintained that it was important to commit the stories and events to paper while first hand accounts were available. It wasn't an easy task. He had the idea, expertise, really valued history and loved the Valley. He knew the "nuts and bolts" side of farming and ranching, machinery, geology, archaeology, etc. I did a little writing and drawing, so I said sure, I'd help. The first draft, (I thought it was the finished product) amounted to a glossary of place names and a detailed time line dealing with about 100 years of Star Valley's history and the various accounts available in other books, etc. I showed it to our cousin Ron who is now a rather famous historian. He read through and said, "It's a great outline, but where is the story?" I sighed and went back to the drawing board.
We must thank Mom who always supported us in the project. She has been the accountant for the past 20 years. Dad and I were lucky she kept such accurate records.
By the way, the high school taught Star Valley history from our book a few years back. The instructor told me that more copies of the book seemed to get "lost" at the end of the semester than any book she'd ever seen. I take that as a compliment.
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