Well, I honestly couldn’t think of a better way to launch Emigrant Tales of the Platte River Raids than by heading straight to the ol’ Rousseau hometown in San Bernardino, County, California. The reception was warm and the crowds lively, even though the breeze had me adding on some layers.
We visited in March (2024), which was perfect timing to speak about Sarah Rousseau’s adventures for Women’s History Month. Though the visit was short, we packed in every morsel of family history exploration and storytelling we could.
Thursday, March 7
We packed a crowd into the San Bernardino Historical Society’s (adorable) historical building downtown where I filled my eyeballs with as much of the display items as I could before delivering a candid presentation on the Pella Company’s various ups and downs as they traveled from Iowa to California in 1864. My absolute favorite moment from that event was when a woman came up to meet me… with a trail diary she owned. It was precious… held together by a thin thread and the pages were falling out. I was in show-and-tell heaven. I have asked her to send me pictures from the inside so I can enjoy learning from another’s family history, just as much as she did from mine.
Friday, March 8
My husband and I spent some time restoring the capstones of Dr. James and Sarah Rousseau in the San Bernardino Pioneer Cemetery and making sure they could get another few years of proper display. Because of the depth the capstones have sunk beneath the ground, we will have to plan a second restoration with some sand to help raise the capstones to ground level again and maybe add a physical barrier to the edge of their plot to prevent irrigation slurry from recovering the pioneer grave markers. (The fruits of this labor have been picked up by the Oregon-California Trails Association, of which I am a supporting member. See below.)
Saturday, March 9
I had the honor of presenting more specifically on Sarah Rousseau’s story as a local pioneering woman who deserves recognition for her exquisite preservation of the Westward Emigration’s slice of American history, and a for being an award-winning storyteller. (Since publishing her diary, it has been awarded 3rd place in the BookFest 2023 contest for books on History, it has earned 1st place honors by the National Federation of Press Writers for editing, and it is currently competing for a Pulitzer Prize!)
And because there were still daylight hours, of course, that Saturday, my husband kindly drove me and my long-time colleague, Nick Cataldo, up through the Cajon Pass for a tour back through time. My husband’s review of this tour was “How does one person know so much about literally everything? There was no question you asked that he didn’t know!” Haha… Yes, well, Nick is also the long-time President of the San Bernardino County Historical and Pioneer Society. I’d expect him to know a thing or two.
Together, Nick and I retraced the descending path down from the San Bernardino Mountains that the Rousseau’s and the rest of the Pella Company took. (The Pella Company includes the family of Wyatt Earp, the family of William Jesse Curtis, and the family of John Hamilton – all of which are San Bernardino or Redlands pioneers). We shot the breeze in between some fascinating displays of trail developments over time and stories of taking the wheels off and hoisting wagon beds up over the men’s shoulders to get them past some monoliths that stubbornly blocked the way.
I must admit that after walking along the trail and seeing just how steep the drops were if the wagon were to swerve, or if a gust of wind were to hit from just the right angle… I gained a new appreciation for the teamsters who invested so much into the horses, mules and cattle. The emigrants had to have formed life-or-death trusting relationships with their animals. And that… makes the pain of losing one so much more difficult (as seen at the end of Sarah Rousseau’s diary).
The video from that tour is also available through the Oregon-California Trails Association (pending release).
What’s Next?
I look forward to sharing more on the Arizona talks and signings coming up shortly, as well as announcing forthcoming book tours in other states!
News
- Emigrant Tales is now available as an audiobook, through Google Play Books. The material is slight adapted to the listener audience and it does not include elements such as maps, photos, and footnotes. So, if you want to “get right to the tales,” without needing those items for further research or other applications, grab yourself a copy and let the adventure begin! PLEASE, for the love of babies, do not let young children overhear the content.
- I have recently been approved to sell books at Frys/Kroger through the Authors in Grocery Stores program and look forward to meeting more history enthusiasts for casual connections in their local neighborhood store.
- Emigrant Tales is receiving some outstanding professional reviews and high praise from reputable places. If you are interested in seeing what the publishing world and pillars of Western Literature are saying, check out the review page by clicking HERE.
Thanks for reading!
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Reach out through the official contact form HERE and let me know the date, location, type of event, and budget. Let’s see what we can make happen.