Yearly Archives: 2011

This week I’ve spoken to several people in the publishing industry and also to a film maker who is interested in producing a documentary based on the book.  All of it is very exciting….

The following excerpt from the manuscript jumps ahead to Chub’s relationship with his first girlfriend in Montana and also mentions Hobo, a horse he had broken and trained while he was working for Oklahoma rancher Pat Scudder. When he jumped bond in 1990 he took Hobo with him, first to Mexico and then to Montana.  During my visit to Alder, Montana I documented this section of the book through interviews with Sherri and Chub’s other friends there, all of whom had no idea who he really was.

“In his free time Chub and Sherri frequently went out riding and hunting in the mountains together. On one occasion they made camp after a long day and were out scouting for camp meat on horseback when Chub spotted fresh elk droppings. He had handed Sherri the reins to Hobo and walked just a few feet when he heard a limb break in the brush straight in front of him. Sherri’s horse started to paw the ground and he shouted for her to jump on Hobo as he unsnapped his 44 magnum off his hip. Hobo had seen it all before- he had been on several bear hunts and Chub had worked his horse around the smell of bears often tying pieces of bear skin on his saddle. Sherri’s horse was reacting like most horses would- the smell of the bear was making him go nuts. Sherri couldn’t hold him and breaking away; he turned and ran back in the direction they had come from. Chub had briefly turned his attention toward Sherri and the runaway horse- when he turned back toward the brush he found a large grizzly bear staring him in the eye from no more than fifty feet away with the bloody leg of an elk held firmly in his mouth. With his pistol out Chub tried to move slowly backwards to Sherri who held Hobo steady and had begun to pull at the ties that held his rifle in the saddle scabbard. Chub’s hopes of getting to his rifle were short lived as the bear dropped his kill and charged. His first two shots did nothing to slow the charge but he kept his aim steady. The third and fourth shots hit something solid; the bear moaned and turned in full retreat. After a couple of more shoots to the bear’s behind Chub knew he could safely check on Sherri and retrieve their runaway horse. He was in no hurry to chase after a wounded bear and he knew it wouldn’t get far. After catching her red roan he followed the blood trail to the spot where the bear had died. It was a massive grizzly, one of the biggest he had ever seen. He would gut and skin this one, hauling it back to Sherri’s where he could properly tan the hide as a gift for his daughter.”

With several good leads for development of this project my work continues. Look for things to happen in the near future along with an announcement followed by some film footage shot in 2008. In the meantime here’s another excerpt I think you will find interesting…

Back in Oklahoma bail bondsmen John Dawson, Charles Sellers and John Van Pelt were getting more heat from the Kansas courts. The men believed that they had caught a big break in the case when an individual known as Chub Anderson was found to be living in Seneca, MO and his description fit Chub’s M.O. The three men wasted no time and headed off from their office in Oklahoma City on the five hour drive to Seneca, calling for law enforcement assistance on the way. They radioed the local sheriff and city police that “Chub Anderson” was considered armed and extremely dangerous and advised them to wait for their arrival before approaching him.

Upon reaching Seneca, they surrounded the home in a stand-off until he was persuaded to surrender quietly. While questioning him, officers found a large quantity of marijuana growing in the backyard and a drug dog located six pounds of pot hidden in the house along with drug paraphernalia and a Mac 10 fully automatic machine gun. Although he didn’t look the same, the bondsmen were sure they had the elusive Chub Anderson, caught with pot and guns as usual. After a phone call the Chautauqua County Sheriff wasn’t so sure, something about the ID didn’t look right. The finger prints and photos he received from the state police confirmed his suspicions – this was someone who needed to be off the streets but he was definitely not Chub. It had been three years and the courts had enough and were threatening to revoke the bonding company’s license if Anderson wasn’t produced. Judge David Casement laid it out to the bondsmen one more time- produce Chub in ten days, pay up the ten thousand or lose your license to do business in Kansas.

This week’s excerpt continues the profile of Chub’s life on the run living under the assumed name of Jack Evert  in Montana. I have drawn from both audio taped and video taped conversations I had with him as well as interviews with people he knew there.

Chub’s first weeks were spent in an older motel on the edge of town- he needed a job and soon he heard about some work in the high country town of Alder which was about forty miles west and straight up. In the spring the area cattlemen band together and lease large portions of government owned land for grazing. They form associations with names like Three Forks, Warm Spring and Black Butt. Together they drive herds of cattle into the mountain valleys and leave them for the summer- usually with just one hired hand watching over them. That man covers a vast area on horseback trying to keep track of hundreds of cattle; doctoring, guarding the calves and generally trying to keep the herd safe from the many hazards of this wide open country.

For Chub the solitude and privacy of the mountains was exactly what he was looking for during his first few summers in Alder and the hard work suited him just fine. There are many dangers for cattle in these mountains including porcupines which are numerous and are especially dangerous for young calves that sniff the slow moving rodents out of curiosity and end up with a nose full of potentially deadly quills. The babies then try to nurse their mothers and end up sticking the quills into their milk bags. The mothers won’t let the babies eat and the next thing you know the cowboy has two sick animals, one of whom weighs at least 1,000 pounds and has to be roped and tied down without the benefit of any pens.  Ranchers were always looking for a widower or hermit-type person and when they found a person with “Jack Evert’s” skills not many questions were asked.

Looking for ways to promote Footprints in the Dew I’ve learned many things one of which is that many writers put excerpts from their projects on their websites. So far I am acting as my own agent and I have decided to follow suit. For the next few weeks I will be posting sections of the book that will give readers a feeling for some of the settings and events I have written about. In this excerpt taken from a chapter entitled On the Run the year is 1990 and Chub has skipped bond on cultivation charges in Kansas and has been gone less than a month:

Ennis is situated in Madison Valley, the southwestern corner of Montana, which is surrounded by three ranges of the Rocky Mountains: the Madison Range, Gravelly Range and the Tobacco Root mountains. People are drawn to the area from all over the world for the beautiful scenery and the outstanding hunting and trout fishing.  Ennis is the biggest community in this part of Montana and on the opening day of hunting season the town puts on an all day feed for the four to five thousand hunters who flock to the town to hunt for elk, mountain goat and deer.  Trout fishing and hunting are the two mainstays of the local economy and the townspeople give their guests the red carpet treatment. This new resident with his love of the outdoors would fit right in but he’d have to be careful.

The town has had its fair share of outlaws seeking a hideout including drug dealers and money launderers as well as the father and son who kidnapped Olympic athlete Kari Swenson and murdered one of her rescuers. In 1985 the local sheriff Johnny France became a legend when he tracked the two down alone and captured them in the mountains. He later wrote a book about his adventure that became a movie. Johnny France was still living in Ennis when Chub moved there. His adventures had made him a local celebrity but he had no way of knowing that one of Kansas’ ten most wanted fugitives would soon be the next bad man taking refuge in the woods of Ennis.

After two tries it’s finally official: Footprints in the Dew is registered with The United States Copyright Office in Washington, D.C. in accordance with title 17 of the United States copyright registration code.

Now the process of finding a major publisher begins and I am looking for a company with the resources to realize the potential that  I believe this story possesses. Books are no easy sell nowadays and the possibility of turning it into a movie is an even longer shot.

With that said, my first challenge is bringing the book to the attention of an audience outside of this region so that more people will be introduced to this true cowboy story which has more angles than I would have ever dreamed. People not only in America but also in Europe love western adventure stories and Footprints in the Dew surely fits the bill.

After five years I guess the easy work is done.