River and Ranch Research

Researching this book means two things to me: mining memories from the time that I lived and worked in the area and discovering a surprising amount of interesting things online, in one way or another.

A big chunk of River and Ranch takes place rafting down the Main and Middle Fork of the Salmon River. I made this part of the book as true as I could based on the years I spent guiding on those two amazing rivers. An incredible time in my life. The Main and the Middle are amazing places, especially if you were a corn fed Midwestern hick like I was when I found myself out there guiding raft trips.

This part of the world will always be my favorite. The rivers, the mountains, skiing, rafting, hunting and fishing, the ranching and the small town lifestyles are about as good as you'll find anywhere. At least to me.

The next big thing that emerges is the immensely interesting and intriguing world of rare earth minerals. It is a real life fact that China dominates this game. This was a research thing. It is also true that the real actual Lemhi Pass area in Idaho has active (as of November 2013) rare earth exploration being conducted by a private firm holding extensive mineral claims in the area. This was a fortuitous discovery that still surprises me. It was one of the reasons that finally conviced me to write this book. That such a relevant topic would pop up literally in the area I was writing about was beyond unexpected. This is a book that wants to be written.

• Brennan's Wave is an actual wave on the Clark Fork river adjacent to the campus. It was not there when I was. It's there now and people do surf it. It's an articial wave made for playboaters.
• The Rattlesnake Wilderness Area really does exist. As far as I know it was then and is now the only wilderness area in the USA with bus service to it. There are several paths going over and through the terrain between the Rattlesnake valley and Marshall Canyon. I both hiked and mountain biked those trails while I was a student at UM.
• The maid's shack behind the big house on Pine Street does truly exist. I did live there. It was a perfect house for a student. I loved that house. Probably my favorite student house of my entire college career. Incidentally, the landlord was a builder in Missoula who went on to national acclaim. He even got an article in Parade magazine about his green building methods and materials. He was building green before it was even a ‘thing’.
• All the many places and place names from the Salmon River, the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, the Bitterroot Valley, and the Missoula area all exist. I was there walking, biking, fishing, hunting, floating or driving them. There are two fantastic books, getting a bit long in the tooth now, by a couple of local guys, Cort Conley and Johnny Carrey. Their collection of old photos offers an amazing look into the motley crew of men, occasional families, frequent hermits, trappers, cougar hunters, miners, and miscreants that populated this area starting ~1880s and continuing on up to so-called modern times. The books are based on river miles and also offer suggestions through the rapids, etc.
• the road trip going home from Utah to Wisconsin (the LONG way) was through amazing spaces. Hot springs were one of many pleasant places I visited, including Easley Hot Springs (Idaho) and Jackson Hot Springs (Montana). Thermopolis, Wyoming was the first hot springs of the trip. Definitely setup as a tourist focused destination. Hot Springs, South Dakota was one of the many pleasant surprises I enjoyed. Sadly, I was out of time and had to scram without giving this little bit of town more than a slow drive down main street. Check out the blog for pix and descriptions of the whole road trip.