People of the Moonshell – A Western River Journal

People of the Moonshell
163 Pages
Renaissance House
ISBN 0-939650-42-8

The river the Indians called the Moonshell , named the Platte , for flat, by French explorers in 1739, is an unimpressive river. It is not deep, nor fast, nor useful for navigation. Yet it became the most important water-course in America's movement West. It's history, like any history, is in the stories of the people who trudged its banks and settled its valleys. Their experience, taken individually, tell us what it was to touch the West and be touched by it.

An Important meeting place for the native peoples, the Platte provided trapper Tom Fitzpatrick with easiest way West. He was quickly followed by explorers , missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman , pioneers in lumbering wagons, soldiers like John C. Fremont, Pony Express riders, artists , crews laying iron rails - the list is long and varied. Celebrated names like Buffalo Bill and unknowns like gold-seeker Sarah Royce left their footprints along the Platte's sandy banks.

Often drawing from diaries, journals and letters to the folks back home, "Peterson's ability to tell a good tale as well as Asa Battles to show the people and beauty of the latter make this publication hard to put down, True West magazine declared. Western American Literature described People of the Moonshell, a large format book, with illustrations and map, as "A beautifully written account...".

Nancy Mayborn Peterson

About Nancy Mayborn Peterson (Denver, Colorado Author)

Nancy Mayborn Peterson

Nancy M. Peterson has been an award-winning author for over 40 years. She has authored four books of Western history set during the frontier era, which author/reviewer Sandra Dallas has labeled "classics." People of the Moonshell illustrates Platte River history. It was followed by a two-volume history of the Missouri River. Her historical focus is always on the individual's experience.

Her fourth book, Walking in Two Worlds; Mixed-Blood Indian Women Seeking Their Path, is a collection of biographies celebrating the accomplishments of these women, whose fathers were trappers and mothers Native Americans.

Nancy grew up in Scottsbluff in the North Platte Valley and now lives in Centennial. She is active in national and local writers' organizations and her church. Hobbies include reading, gardening, dancing, and enjoying nature.