Hard Winter: A Western Story

by Johnny D. Boggs

Weather and creaking joints permitting, Jim Hawkins could be found every weekend sitting in that rocker right outside the Manix Store in Augusta, whittling and spitting. But Jim Hawkins didn’t say much. Few knew what age Jim Hawkins might own up to, but Big Clem Ellis said he’d heard that Jim Hawkins was fifty years old, which might explain why his hair was so gray, or why he needed a scarred hickory cane to push himself out of that rocking chair, especially when it got cold, and it got bitter cold in Augusta. Especially the past winter.Folks figured the Chinooks would never get there, and the warm winds didn’t arrive in time for many farmers. Come spring, homesteaders by the score gave up, saying good-bye to their mortgages, the unforgiving wind, and forlorn dreams. Still, Jim Hawkins said hardly anything. Ever. That’s how Henry Lancaster felt.That all changed when Jim Hawkins took Henry along on a scouting trip. The man who so rarely talked told his grandson how it was during that winter he could so clearly remember, the winter of 1866. Now that was a hard winter, harder than anyone living could remember, and harder than any winter since

Genres: Westerns

250 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Johnny D. Boggs is a Spur- and Wrangler Award-winning author of the American West and frontier. Born in 1962, Boggs grew up on a farm near Timmonsville, South Carolina, around the old stamping grounds of Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion (chronicled in his frontier novel The Despoilers). He knew he wanted to be a writer at an early age. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife, Lisa Smith; son, Jack Smith Boggs; and basset hound, June.

Reviews

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought of "The Virginian" by Owen Wister and "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Also, "Monte Walsh" by Jack Shaefer.
Just heart breaking and mind boggling about how many animals died.
Thinking of this past winter when an early blizzard hit South Dakota and the cows that died there.
I also think of the how each generation has had their storms and what they meant to them.
For me, it was the winter of 1986 & 87. We had "black" snow blown in to Minnesota that winter. It was the topsoil from North Dakota.
WOW!
We had some high drifts and snow. Most didn't bother us, because My Dad had a Loader on a 75 hp British Leyland tractor and he plowed us and the neighbors out.
However We burnt wood for heat in the house and we ran out of wood and my dad was gone for a week.
the cord wood my mother bought from the lumber mill wouldn't burn and my uncle Harold, came and caught a tree down in the yard, w/his chainsaw and cut up the tree for us. My brother and I could split wood but at that time, we didn't operate the chainsaw. Give me an ax any day.
Relationships between pards and those who herded the cattle.

[Garth Mailman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can just see the old codger rocking on the stoop aiming for the coffee can. Can’t imagine the stench skinning dead cattle for their hides. One would have to burn the clothes one was wearing after the trip. Mind you I no longer consider 50 all that old.

The book is a series of yarns related by the “old” man about his days as a cowboy, emphasis on boy, he was going on 16. Cowboys worked on horseback, any job that required a cowboy to get off his horse short of branding wasn’t work befitting a Cowboy. Cattle roamed the open range. Sodbusters strung barbed wire to protect their crops. When ranchers started claiming the open range and fencing it off it was the end of a way of life. Today rodeo cowboys ride horses and rich city folk board them at horse stables or visit Dude Ranches. Cowboys ride the range on ATVs or helicopters.

[Charis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jim reminds me of my grandpa, and maybe that's why I loved his character so much -- short of words, but full of stories if he has a mind to share them. I really enjoyed this story.

[Joe Stack · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story, based on Montana's historical and disastrous hard winter of 1886-87, is a page turner. After the first few chapters. The struggle to survive the blizzard is gripping. This is not just a story about the winter. It's also an accurate description about being a cowboy.

One of the conflicts in the story is about the end of the open range and dealing with what this means. Another conflict about friendship, the struggle to keep it, and the struggle to stick it out.

Boggs writing is enjoyable. Two examples: "Not much of a rain, and, like God wanted to match our moods, He turned the rain into hail," and "This was like no wind that ever blew, the most vicious gale, carrying with it the screams of thousands and thousands and thousands of men and women and animals and monsters. Like it came from depths of hell, only with a numbing cold instead of the worst heat, filling the air with snow that stabbed like rock salt fired from a shotgun."

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Story that Sticks with You

I got the ebook version of this novel for free and, frankly, didn't expect a lot from it. I was very much mistaken. This is a vivid depiction of ranching at the end of the open range era. The characters are authentic, the trials that they face are real, and the harsh conditions jump off the page. I'm surprised I didn't have frostbite by the time I finished the book.

[Coalbanks]

looking forward to it, have read about that winter, when i was 10 yrs old i met an 80 yr old guy who had lived on the prairies through that winter, he had a painting of starving cattle on a snow covered prairie, i imagine it left it's mark on someone about the age i was when we met.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Surprise

Just when you think this is going to be a calm, quiet story, off it goes and you can’t put it down. Mr. Boggs builds his story to a crescendo and drags the reader along like you’re tied to every word. You’ll find it hard to put this down until the very end.

[Terrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! - even the 2nd or 3rd time, it's STILL a great book

[Ratforce]

Winner of the Best Living Historical Novelist award in 2012, Johnny D. Boggs is an excellent choice for fans of William W. Johnstone. Boggs seamlessly ties together well-drawn characters, humor, suspense, and detailed western settings in his books. Start with Hard Winter.

[Donna Jo Atwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this has some of the classic western's cliches--coming of age, range war--the main "villian" here is an unusually harsh Montana winter. Boggs does a very nice job of it.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Johnny D. Boggs has become my second favorite living Western author. His books are always interesting and unique, and Hard Winter was no exception. It grabbed me from the beginning and held my interest all the way through, despite not one single shootout.

The story is told by 50-year-old Jim Hawkins on a ride with his grandson to visit some old haunts from Jim's younger days. He tells about leaving Texas after a harsh winter killed too many cattle, about coming to Montana, stringing barbed wire, avoiding a range war, and eventually facing a winter even worse than the one in Texas. It's a story about friendship, coming of age, and life on the northern frontier.

It's labeled as juvenile fiction, but the only place I really felt like it held back noticeably was when Jim wouldn't tell his grandson the actual cuss words being said as events unfolded. And, like I said, there were no shootouts, no hangings, no on-screen murders, etc. It's a good, clean story, fit for younger readers, but with plenty of meat for older folks.

I listened to this on audio and I have to say that William Roberts did an excellent job voicing Jim Hawkins.

This is a fine book by an excellent author. I definitely recommend it.