< PREVIOUS ] [ 2008 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >
Thanks for bringing up Zane Grey and his romanticized West that continues to influence us.
My Dad had the whole shelf, many of which I read as a kid. In 1975 my wife and I lived in Kremmling, Colo. Local residents said it had been the setting for a Zane Grey novel, which I finally tracked down: The Mysterious Rider.
Actually, very little of the story happened in Kremmling. The novel's main setting was the Belllounds Ranch about 25 miles from town, and I learned it was based on the Hendrix Ranch near the headwaters of Troublesome Creek (got to love some of our place names).
The heroine was named Columbine. I knew the word as our state flower; I'd never thought of it as a name before. Martha was then pregnant with our first child, so we agreed that if it was a girl, we'd name her Columbine, as it seemed to fit.
We had a daughter we named Columbine. She just turned
33. It takes a while to explain the connections to
Kremmling and the Zane Grey novel, so usually I tell people
who ask about her name that Columbine is an old Ute word
for my parents were hippies in the mountains.
But it
really shows how Zane Grey's influence lives on.
< PREVIOUS ] [ 2008 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >