Ispent most of today Sunday watching movies about Louis L’Amour’sSacket brothers. A lot of you remember those stories, I’m sure.The best part is that most of those movies starred Tom Selleck, SamElliot and Ben Johnson, as did a lot of other westerns. What’s awestern without those three? Tom and Sam were such natural “oldwest” characters.

       Imiss the days of good western movies. Today, Hollywood is too removedfrom reality to know how to make a true western anymore, and notteaching history in school the way it shouldbe taught has stolen children’s minds of the excitement andadmiration for how this country grew. There are no westerns on TVanymore, no real heroes, no conception of the bravery and fortitudeof our early pioneers.

       Iwonder how many of you remember the TV mini-series called CENTENNIAL.That series took western settlement from the early days of the furtrappers and mountain men through the land rushes and pioneers, theIndian wars and struggles, the building of the railroads and the sadkilling off of millions of buffalo, the gold discoveries and thegrowth of big cities like San Francisco, the struggles with outlawsand finally the establishment of law and order in a wild, sometimescruel land that was sometimes savage and brutal itself. Who else butJames Michener could write such great history? The series was basedon his book, which is set in Colorado, as is my own series, SAVAGEDESTINY. Michener wrote those “big, fat books” I always loved toread, including one about Hawaii.

       CENTENNIALinspired my desire to write a big story about the settling of theWest. I love using the gradual settlement of a certain area as thebackground for my books. I try hard to use only truth when it comesto events and places, with only the characters being fictitious. Intoday’s modern world it is really hard to get your mind and spiritinto yesteryear. A writer needs to study hard, to be alone and useevery facet of the imagination to be able to place himself or herselfinto those “old days” of no conveniences, no A/C, norefrigeration, no running water and toilets, no electricity in remoteplaces, no fancy furniture or comfy mattresses, no convenience storesfor a quick quart of milk and ready-made butter, no showers and fancysoaps, and worst of all, no ready-to-buy medicine for colds and fluand pain. Yes, the “good old days” were more peaceful andprobably better for teaching young ones how to work hard and earntheir way, but when it comes to medicine, they were not such “goodold days” at all.

       Iam sort of rambling here, but watching a movie based on a LouisL’Amour book refreshes my memory of how and why I started writingwesterns and history itself. My books are not always westerns. I havecovered pre-Revolution years through post-Revolution years, the CivilWar, the War of 1812, the Mexican war, the building of theTranscontinental Railroad and other historical novels, but my firstlove and the bulk of my writing involves my favorite subject of all– the Old West, cowboys, Native Americans, pioneers, outlaws andlawmen.

       It'stoo bad that today’s TV and movie-makers seem to have abandonedthat theme, but what goes around usually comes around, so I alwayshold out hope that such subject matter will rise again in the mindsand hearts of movie-makers and the viewers. I think one of the bestmovies that depicts the gradual demise of the true “cowboy” isMONTE WALSH, starring Tom Selleck. I always cry at the end of thatmovie. And the best movie about the end of the old “live by thegun” lawmen and shootists is the movie THE SHOOTIST, starring JohnWayne. Not only is that movie a great depiction of the end of an era,but it was John Wayne’s last movie before he died. How perfect andfitting is that? My God, what a career that man had.

       Maybeit’s just my age that makes me nostalgic about those old westerns,and maybe the general public will continue to lose its interest asyounger people move in to take over, but there is always hope that“The Wild West” will rise again in the minds and hearts of moviemakers and movie viewers. We need more Kevin Costners, one of the fewmodern men who seems to understand how to make a good western, likeOPEN RANGE. It’s one of my favorites. And then, of course, there isDANCES WITH WOLVES. Even YELLOWSTONE is, in its own way, a western.So much of the dialogue in that series is so true and heartfelt whenthey talk about what is happening to Montana. How absolutely fittingit was that the Yellowstone Ranch ended up being gifted back to theNative Americans. That says a lot.

       Well,so much for my nostalgia. It hurts my heart to realize that mostyoung people have little appreciation for how this country wassettled and the bravery it took to do it. But that’s not theirfault. It’s the fault of our teaching system that leaves out somuch of our important history. I hope you will do what you can inyour local school system to bring real history back to ourclassrooms.