(borrowed from Rattlesnake Graffiti)
Update on the Preface
It has been a joy for me to take Daddy's handwritten memories and enter them into my word
processor and "edit" them. Actually, I decided early on in the project not to edit them as I would
something of my own that I had written for publication because I wanted them to read as though
the reader were hearing Daddy speak of these memorable events. I wanted Daddy's "voice" to
come through--and I believe it has.
As the youngest of eight children, I realize that I would not be personally acquainted with nearly
as many of these events as my sisters and brothers would be, but I do remember much of what is
written in the latter part of the document, nevertheless.
For as many years as I can recall, I have dreamed of going with Daddy to that place in Colorado where he was a "real, live cowboy" on a "real, live ranch." Both of my daughters--Kelly Renee and Keri Dawn--were married on Saturday, May 30, 1992. On the following Monday, June 1, Carol (my wife) and I and Daddy started out from our home in Jacksonville, Texas, for southeast Colorado. Over the next few days we found the place where the ranch had been, walked in the dirt and on the old wooden bridge over Ritchie Gulch across which Daddy had ridden his horse seventy-two years earlier. We even visited with a man (James "Tuffy" Hall) who had lived in that community at the same time that Daddy was there! While Daddy was greatly disappointed in the vast changes in the land since he had lived there, I could not have been more thrilled with my experience that week.(1) I hope I can go back again sometime.
James Darwin (Jim) Shine--August 9, 1992
Update on the Preface
In a follow-up trip, Carol and I picked Daddy up at his home in Springfield, Missouri, on
Monday afternoon, June 28, 1993, and headed back toward Wetmore, Colorado. We spent a few
days in the area of the ranch, visiting with several interesting and helpful people. Among them
were Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Haynes, the parents of Larry Haynes, a 36-year-old lifetime resident
of the area whom we met at "Tuffy" Hall's place, and who had been so helpful to us the first time
we went out there. Leonard Haynes and his wife live in a house that was the old stagecoach
house over a hundred years ago.
Perhaps the most significant encounter we had that week was with Mr. and Mrs. Terry Everhart,
the current owners of several thousand acres that include the old ranch property. Mr. Everhart
was extremely helpful, loading us into his son's new Ford Explorer and driving us all over the
old ranch. He seemed as excited as we were--glad to have someone who remembered so clearly
events that pertained to some of his property--events that occurred years before he was born!
Daddy would tell him what he remembered about what was where, and Mr. Everhart would drive
us right to it. We found the place where the old ranch house had stood, the old cistern nearby,
pieces of concrete footing that must have been original, as well as weathered, light-as-a-feather
boards that apparently had been part of the house or of some outbuilding. Everyone in that area
said that "if it was there then, it's there now, because nobody changes anything around here."
The sight-seeing trip became quite exciting when Mr. Everhart decided to take us up the old road
up the side of the mountain (the "railroad grade" Daddy mentions in chapter 1) to the top. Several
times he had to get out and roll boulders out of the way, but we made it to the top of the hill that
seemed far higher from on top than it had from the base of it.
I am truly grateful to Terry Everhart for his help that day, but also for obviously caring so much
about a place and a time that were so important to Daddy. Mr. Everhart, I hope that one day you
will get to read this document, and when you do, please hear me say one more time, "Thank you
and God bless you!"
Second Update on the Preface
At approximately 8:15 p.m. on Friday, January 19, 2001, John Henry Shine went home to be with the Lord with most of his children present. He left behind 110 of his 112 direct descendants, not counting step-grandchildren and step-great grandchildren.
Click here to see panorama of the ranch vicinity.1. The disappointment Daddy experienced was that the lush alfalfa fields and corn fields that were there in the early 1920's had been replaced by scrub rangeland. In the early days, the fields were irrigated by water from Hardscrabble Creek, etc., but in ensuing years surrounding municipalities have bought up all the water rights and irrigation is no longer done to any great extent. Therefore, the range was allowed to return to the condition it had been in before the irrigating began. Return
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