The stories in this book are recorded verbal histories of life on a homestead cattle ranch on the American Frontier. Since there was almost no commercial entertainment, people came up with their own forms of entertainment. A favorite activity was for a couple of families to get together for supper, followed by an evening of visiting in the living-room. Inevitably the old-timers would start telling their stories, which often continued way into the night. This was way better entertainment than the TV which is a powerful disruptor of visiting.
The stories depict a very primitive way of life. The climate was harsh, and the work was hard, 7 days a week. But when two families got together, there was always time for visiting.
The setting for these stories is a very isolated area of northeast California, and northwest Nevada, known as the Madeline Plains. The stories are both entertaining, and real. Here you can get a taste of what life was really like on the American frontier.
The stories are random just as they would be in the living-room. They date from the time of the first pioneers in the area around 1880 all the way into the 1960s when the area was till primitive.
Here Jon Garate shares stories of the earliest pioneers through three generations of pioneers and homesteaders. Some of them are are of his own life.