who ended their long journey at the end of the Oregon Trail. It is a city with hundreds of unanswered ques-tions buried in history. And one spring day, one more mystery was added in the vacant hilltop field called
The city of Oregon City is the oldest city west of the Missouri River. Incorporated in 1844, the city is steeped in the history of the American West and of the pioneers
Wawko sixto wah!
Red Soils
Murder at the End of the Oregon Trail
Preface
As you can see, this is an online Internet novel. It appears and disappears at my whim. I write as an avocation and not for a living. However, all of my 100 plus essays are non-fiction, are written for regional, national and international publications and are about public policy issues. So this story is something I am writing for my own enjoyment and for my children, grandchildren and maybe even great grand children.
The places described in the story are very real and I have been there. The characters are also based on people I have met and known in my life, but I have changed their descriptions to be fair to them.
This is more than the writings of a writer with dreams. It is a legacy and a riddle. I wrote it for children and adults. It is a story on three levels.
First, there is the story of Red Soils as told by the narrator (me).
Second, there is a separate set of writings that are from the notebook of the Vietnam-era veteran in the story. And a life prior to that and after that. That notebook is linked to by the Chinese characters for "notebook" or 簿子 that is found next to the chapter headings in the book.
Third, there are clues born of the "I Spy" series of books that a father reads to his daughters and sons, and grand children. I have hidden clues everywhere. Only a child would seek them out. Only a child could find them. And the question is, "Is there a treasure there?" That you will need to find out on your own. There is a treasure with no doubt... if I am dead, then I left a treasure. Mercedes got it right, "He is in everything. Even in a kiss." And Dantes says, "Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know you as we know you."
The third level is the most amazing. I come from a long line of Masons. Kit Carson's muzzle loader hangs in the Santa Fe Scottish Rites Masonic Temple and on my wall. And the Mason are all about the mystery. I was born into a family whose ancestry were Masons. The Knights Templar. We Scots love a mystery. You have to understand I am loving this. And you have to understand that I took an oath to pass on the secret to only one person I trusted. She would be a Carson. But she can never tell.
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