Clayt

My Brother Jim was a writer. He wrote serious works like the Official History of the Korean War for the U. S. Army, and he also wrote light fiction. Jim died in 2002.

The above picture is the cover of Jim's book entitled "Clayt" which was published about 20 years ago. It is fiction based on real people and real places: family, friends, and Enterprise, Oregon.

A description from the back cover reads

"Clayt Shackelford may not have been cast in the same mold as his contemporaries, Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp. Nevertheless, this pocket-sized lawman keeps his lovely little corner of the Wild West every bit as tidy as Dodge City or Abilene.

Sometimes testy and prideful, occasionally confused, but ever resourceful, swift, fearless, and lucky, Clayt is more than a match for the villainies and villains that keep turning up in his bailiwick - Oregon's Wallowa Valley.

When a whimsical Providence drops the Nez Perce Indian preacher Great Bear Who Runs Fast on the same square with Clayt, the game grows chancy and dangerous. After the U.S. Army's bloody defeat of Chief Joseph in the war of 1877, vengeful generals had railroaded through a law that forbade the Nez Perce from ever returning to their beloved ancestral lands around Wallowa Lake. Clayt doesn't think much of this law, but as a deputy sheriff is sworn to enforce it."

The cover picture shows Clayton and Norey and Nez Perce Indian, "Great Bear Who Runs Fast", in Enterprise.

Shackelford Family

Enterprise