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“Broken Trail” Author and Illustrator Give Talk at Brinton Museum
On Friday, November 3, The Brinton Museum, Big Horn, held a program celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the novel Broken Trail. Some of the novel takes place at the Quarter Circle A Ranch in Big Horn.
Lloyd Kelly, illustrator, said,
Speakers at the program were Alan Geoffrion author of the novel, which is a book about two cowboys who drive a herd of horses from Oregon to Wyoming, and along the way rescue several young Chinese girls from a life of prostitution.
In his introduction, retiring Executive Director & Chief Curator Ken Schuster said that Lloyd Kelly has been a friend of the Brinton Museum since 1992, and is on the national advisory committee. He said that Kelly was the one to introduce the author, as they are good friends.
He added that Schuster was quoted in the back of the book,
Geoffrion wrote the screenplay as well as the novel, and at the event he presented a copy of the screenplay to Schuster to be added to the Brinton Museum’s Permanent collection.
Geoffrion said he always admired books with illustrations, but publishers somewhere along the line decided that illustrations were only for children’s books. Kelly added that this book has around 94 drawings in 300 pages. Kelly suggested that people don’t just look at the illustrations but also read the book.
Geoffrion and Kelly did a book signing in Sheridan when the book first came out, and Geoffrion talked about novel’s reception in Sheridan.
He talked about the book and movie, as he has known Robert Duvall for many years, and he was instrumental in getting the book written. Geoffrion said he once he had breakfast with Duvall and told him about the time he took some horses up the historic Haythorn Ranch in the Nebraska sandhills.
Waldo Haythorn, ranch owner, told Geoffrion about his grandfather going out to Oregon, and bringing back five hundred head of horses on consignment to the government for the Rosebud Agency in South Dakota.
Duvall suggested he write up the story. He also explained about how he got the idea for the Chinese girls the cowboys rescued. He said he had been reading about the Chinese Experience in the Old West.
He added the main character, Print Ritter’s horse in the book was named Bob Tate after a real polo pony that a friend of his purchased from Bob Tate, who was well-known in the Sheridan area.
He said that instead of having the cowboys take the horses to the Rosebud Agency, he had them deliver them to the Moncrieffe ranch to be sold the British during the Boer War. The book talks about the Ritter and his crew meeting with Malcolm Moncrieffe at the Quarter Circle A Ranch.
There were copies of the book available for sale at the Museum Gift Shop, and the event was well attended by area residents.
