One Came Home, my western about a thirteen-year old girl who sets off to find her presumed-dead sister, is set in 1871 in southwestern Wisconsin. Let me be honest: I love the twenty-first century: I use an iPhone, and am conversant in iTunesian, and App-uguese. I wear technical outdoor clothing as my fingers scale the heights of a Qwerty keyboard. I struggle with email overload and couldn’t chop a cord of wood if you asked me. So me, Amy Timberlake, writing about 1871 Wisconsin? It’s a stretch—and a big one. How did I get myself back there? Here’s a list of a few sources that helped me take that step back in time:
Passenger Pigeons
Imagining an extinct species takes some doing. I wouldn’t have been able to do it at all without A. W. Schorger, The Passenger Pigeon. But I also used lots of images—drawings and photographs of passenger pigeons (of course), and then images that made me feel something of what it might have been like to experience the birds (the artist M.C. Escher for instance). Here’s one of the YouTube videos that I found particularly inspiring:
H.H. Bennett, the photographer of Kilburn, Wisconsin (now known as Wisconsin Dells)
Stand Rock
Here’s a bit of text from One Came Home:
“I tried to calm myself by focusing my eyes and thoughts on the Wisconsin River, a ribbon of which was visible . . . I noted the location of all that I knew to be there: the sandstone that lined the banks and piled yellow, tan and red, like giant pancake stacks; the cave that summer visitors carved their names into; the teapot islands with their pine-tree lids; and the spires that balanced rocks at their point.”
As you can see for yourself in the work of H.H. Bennett, this is truly what the area looked like:
Do a Google Search for H.H. Bennett and click on images: You’ll see many of the Kilburn, Wisconsin images.
Though Wisconsin Dells beauty is well worth a visit, the sandstone formations are not as visible as they were in Bennett’s day. Sadly, in the early nineteenth century, the Wisconsin River was dammed and raised water levels by dozens of feet, so if you want to see this world in 1871 you have to use Bennett’s photographs.
Soundtrack?
Yup, got one of those too! This was a book built on the music of The Punch Brothers. Enjoy!
Amy Timberlake Photo Credit: MJ Alexander
Amy Timberlake grew up in Hudson, Wisconsin. She has an M.A. in English/Creative Writing from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she’s also taught writing. She’s worked as a book reviewer, a book event coordinator, and as a children’s bookseller. Her previous books include That Girl Lucy Moon and The Dirty Cowboy. The Dirty Cowboy was illustrated by Adam Rex and won SCBWI’s Golden Kite Award. That Girl Lucy Moon was chosen as a Book Sense Pick, a NYPL’s “100 Titles for Reading and Sharing,” a Bank Street Best Children’s Book of 2007, an Amelia Bloomer Book, and the winner of the Friends of American Writers Literary Award. Amy Timberlake lives with her husband in Chicago. Learn more about her life and work at her website: www.AmyTimberlake.com.
